United States Department of Transportation
i
Evaluation plan : the Branson Travel and Recreational Information Program field operational test
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1998-02-25
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[PDF-707.46 KB]
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Abstract:The Branson Travel and Recreational Information Program (TRIP) is a Field Operational Test (FOT) of Traveler Information Services in Tourism Areas funded through the National Advanced Rural Transportation Systems Program. Over the past ten years, Branson, Missouri has grown to be known as the “live entertainment capital of the world.” With more that 38 music and entertainment theaters, Branson attracts more than six million visitors per year. Its permanent population of just 4,400 swells to 40,000 during peak tourist season. Branson TRIP, built upon existing ITS infrastructure, is designed to provide enhanced traveler and tourist information in the area. The existing infrastructure includes Internet sites, Highway Advisory Radio (HAR) stations, traffic detection equipment, and changeable message signs. The new system will include a centralized database and control point for data collection/dissemination, additional surveillance equipment, a portable traffic management system, kiosks, low-cost Web terminals in strategic locations, enhanced Web sites, coordinated links to television and radio stations, as well as full area HAR coverage. The evaluation of Branson TRIP is being conducted by Battelle under the ITS Program Assessment Support contract with the Department of Transportation’s ITS Joint Program Office. The evaluation will address technical challenges in developing ATIS applications in rural environments, institutional benefits and issues, usefulness of the information to the traveling public, effectiveness of various media to disseminate information to the public, and the overall impact of the information on traveler behavior. The evaluation strategy combines primary and secondary data collection and analyses for evaluating benefits and outcomes. Tourist intercept surveys, focus groups, personal interviews, and special “travel time/data accuracy” studies are the primary data collection methods that will be used. The evaluation will also make use of secondary data sources such as systems operational data (e.g., number of Web page hits) and historical traffic and accident data as a low-cost means of measuring impacts of various system components.
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