La SNCF veut contrer la baisse de son trafic par les petits prix. Google Maps to out-Rome2rio Rome2rio? We don’t think so. NB: This is a guest article by Michael Cameron, co-founder of Rome2rio a multi-modal flight platform. Last week, Google announced a new version of Google Maps that, among other things, revamps their directions interface and adds flight search to the product. At the time, Tnooz reported that the improvements could out-Rome2Rio Rome2Rio. Having now gained access to a preview of the new product, we are confident this is not the case. Google Maps is a wildly successful product that provides incredibly useful functionality for a variety of tasks, but it is not a travel search product.
Rome2rio continues to offer a variety of advantages when it comes to multi-modal travel search and planning. Let’s walk through the various areas where Rome2rio continues to offer unique functionality for travel search: Multi-modal, door-to-door search Google Maps remains limited to search results that utilize one mode of transport at a time. To illustrate, consider an example search from San Francisco to Whistler.
German Rail Provides Google Acces To Data. Transit – Google Maps. French startup KelBillet profits from its multi-modal search engine. KelBillet is a French multimodal search engine that indexes fares for trains, buses, airplanes, cars, and rideshares. It’s aimed at French travelers taking domestic and short-haul trips. In early 2013, the site averaged 1 million unique visitors a month, says the company.
The site also supports a peer-to-peer marketplace for second-hand, non-refundable train tickets. (The marketplace grew out of an online forum launched in 2005.) KelBillet’s revenue model relies on cost-per-click (CPC) advertising for transportation operators and retailers, providing referrals to qualified leads. The company says its conversion rates are above the industry average, from 1% to 15%, depending on the transportation mode (plane, bus, or train). In 2010 the company got its start thanks to a funding round of 200,000 euro from angel investors.
Q&A with CEO Yann Raoul: As of early 2013, we have 21 referenced companies on our search engine and 780,000 registered members. The first step is to achieve success. Www.wttc.org/site_media/uploads/downloads/world2013_1. Onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/acrp/acrp_rpt_004.pdf. Page.kds.com/2013-EN-WebsiteNeoDemoRequest_LP-EN-DemoofKDSNeo.html?aliId=1149429. S Syndicated Commerce in Plain English for Ground Transportation Providers | Deem™ Blog. Syndicated Commerce is catching on like wildfire as the new and improved way for Brands to build awareness, engage existing customers, acquire new customers, and drive loyalty in ways that are relevant, measurable and drive monetization. As a long time ‘marketeer’, I believe the ultimate goal is to engage customers in more relevant and frequent ways to create an emotional ‘ attachment’ to a Brand or a merchant. The coveted ‘secret sauce’ to driving emotional attachments? Trust. Road warriors, occasional business travelers, and leisure travelers all want the same thing – a recommendation from someone they trust.
With Syndicated Commerce, the customer is the destination, no matter where they are or what technology they are using. Ground transportation providers can participate in syndicated commerce as the “Advertiser”, syndicating their content across Deem’s online and mobile platforms of Brands. Expenditure on personal mobility (TERM 024) - Assessment published Jan 2011 — Key messages The share of household expenditure on transport has been broadly stable over time (when aggregated across countries and income bands). Data suggest that increased fuel prices have given rise to increased expenditure on operational costs, and decreased purchases of vehicles in recent years. High income groups and economically developed countries spend more on car purchase and transport than do low income groups and countries.
Fig. 1: Share of household expenditure on transport services across countries (% of total spending, 2008) Note: Share of household expenditure on transport services across countries. Downloads and more info Fig. 2: Share of household expenditure on transport services across countries (% of total spending) Note: The table reports the share of household expenditure on transport services across different european countries as percentage of total spending. Data source: Eurostat. Key assessment. The Daily — Survey of Household Spending, 2011. PDF version Previous release Canadian households spent an average of $55,151 on goods and services in 2011, up 2.7% from 2010. This was slightly below the rate of inflation of 2.9% as measured by the Consumer Price Index ( CPI ). Spending on shelter accounted for 27.6% of this total; transportation, 20.4% and food, 14.1%. Provincially, households in Alberta ($64,453) had the highest average spending on goods and services, followed by households in Ontario ($57,514).
Households in Prince Edward Island ($45,190) reported the lowest average. Couples with children reported average spending on goods and services of $75,543 in 2011. Shelter Households spent an average of $15,198 on shelter, up 1.3% from 2010. On average, homeowners spent $17,123 on shelter, accounting for 26.7% of their spending on goods and services. Average spending on shelter was highest among households in population centres of one million or more at $17,285.
Transportation Food Health care Communications CSV version of chart 1. Transport takes up bigger proportion of household spending | Business. British families' weekly spending fell last year to the lowest for at least seven years in real terms but the amount they had to spend on transport rose, according to official statistics. In 2010 average weekly household expenditure in the UK was £473.60 and as in previous years the biggest proportion went on transport, followed by housing costs such as rent and fuel bills, the Office for National Statistics said in its annual report into family spending. The weekly spend was down £2.40 from a year earlier when adjusted for rising inflation by using 2010 prices. Transport made up 14% of spending from 13% the year before. Most other categories of spending remained at the same proportion of families' weekly outgoings but recreation and culture slipped back slightly to 12% from 13%. The ONS data showed a different spending patterns depending on income.
There was also a strong regional divide in spending. Www.nssga.org/government/Reauthorization/12_Section_A.pdf. INTRAREGIO - Work Packages. TRIP - Publications. Home - Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology. Europtima - Changing the paradigm in data and fare collection systems.
Www.ub.edu/graap/TM_BELALBALATE.pdf. A Renewed Look at Federal Funding for Transit Operations - The Transportationist.org. Yonah Freemark @ The Transit Politic makes a case for funding transit at the federal level from an equity perspective, basically arguing it is redistributionist: A Renewed Look at Federal Funding for Transit Operations : "This review suggests therefore that there is considerable reason to be skeptical of decentralizing transit funding. Indeed, it indicates that a centralization of spending at the federal level could improve outcomes in terms of regional equity by allowing a redistribution of resources based on need rather than ability to pay. " Without disputing his analysis, the question is whether the best way to help poor people is having the federal government fund transit capital projects in metropolitan areas with the ability to match.
There are alternatives. The one I like best is giving poor people money and letting them choose what to spend it on. Towards financially sustainable mass transit systems - The Transportationist.org. Mass transit systems in the United States are collectively losing money hand over fist. Yet many individual routes (including bus routes) earn enough to pay their own operating (and even capital costs). But like bad mortgages contaminating the good, money-losing transit routes are bogging down the system. We can divide individual systems into three sets of routes: 1. Those routes break-even or profit financially (at a given fare). 2. 3. Mass (or public) transit agencies are transportation organizations first, not welfare organizations.
My thesis is that the local transit systems should identify and propose to retrench to the financially sustainable system, and present local politicians with a choice. If local politicians want additional "equity" services, they should be presented with a cost of subsidy per line, and then can collectively choose which lines to finance out of general revenue, as this is primarily a welfare rather than an transportation function.
Www.uctc.net/papers/681.pdf. Otago.ourarchive.ac.nz/bitstream/handle/10523/2222/MandenoTobyG2012MPlan?sequence=1. Tourism and Transport: Modes, Networks and Flows - David T. Duval - Google Books.