A Method for Controlling Arrival Time to Prevent Late Arrival by Manipulating Vehicle Timetable Information

Although it is socially and ethically important not to be late for a specified arrival time, late arrivals sometimes happen to people using public transportation. Although many methods aim to smooth a user's movement by providing useful information, there are few approaches to prevent late arrivals due to psychological factors. In this research, to make a user's arrival time earlier and thus prevent late arrival, we propose a method that manipulates time allowance by presenting information based on a psychological and cognitive tendency. We apply this method to a vehicle timetable system for the purpose of preventing public transit users from arriving after a target vehicle's departure time. Our proposed timetable system manipulates the time intervals between a user's target vehicle and other vehicles by introducing fictional elements such as hidden vehicles and inserted fictional vehicles. This method uses the relationship between the time allowance and the departure time interval, and it can make a user desire and accept arriving at a station earlier. We implemented a prototype system and conducted four experiments. The evaluation results confirmed that our proposed method is effective for changing a user's time allowance and actual arrival time.