Getting Airport Ground Access Information To The Traveler: Intermodal Information Systems

A variety of tools and media are now readily available to the airport manager interested in creating better public mode ground transportation strategies to the clients of the airport. This paper examines the development of new and evolving information technology that can be used to bring airport ground access information and ticketing options to the traveler. The airport itself is involved with the management, regulation and monitoring of certain ground services that are operated specifically for the airport market, including taxis, airport limousines, airport vans, and airport coach bus services. The airport website will also need to provide to the traveler information about the regional public transportation system in general, including service details that are far beyond the responsibility of airport management. The author uses the Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam (The Netherlands), the e-airport program of the Narita Airport in Tokyo (Japan), the London Heathrow Airport, the Zurich (Switzerland) airport, the Portland (Oregon, United States), and BWI (Baltimore Washington International) airport as case examples of ways to provide information and access to ground transportation. The author concludes that most major metropolitan areas have sophisticated advanced traveler information systems (ATIS) in operation and that most airports try to disseminate good ground access information, but there is very little functional integration occurring between the two. If airports work together on a common data format for ground transportation services, information service providers will be better able to integrate and disseminate all elements of the full, multi-segment intermodal trip. The paper is based on work undertaken for the Airport Cooperative Research Program and for the I-95 Corridor Coalition (eastern seaboard, United States).