Advanced traveler information systems: Bringing environmental information to recreational driving

Large amounts of geographic data are compiled each and every day for planning and management purposes but these data are often underutilized and their power to uncover many fascinating aspects of the natural world that we live in largely go untapped. This paper describes the development and testing of a spatially aware system which utilizes this data in an unconventional way aimed at both educating and entertaining recreational automobile drivers. While there is much written about the development of these Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS) for the purposes of navigation or driver safety little is know about their application in this context. This paper investigates general interest in such a system as well as the specific level of interest for the different information selections presented. In addition, we investigated the importance of spatially linking the information to visual aspects of the environment as they passed by. The system was tested in an experiment which compared four different narratives (information sources) with conventional car radio and silence. Listenership was found to be significantly different between the six levels tested with the spatially specific geographic information on the surrounding mountains and rivers visible being most preferred.