Designing mobility apps to support intermodal travel chains

Sustainable intermodal transportation is a promising approach to counter increasing CO2 emissions and mobility restrictions in big cities. However, the broad range of travel services hinders users in planning, booking, and processing trips. Such problems can be addressed by offering self-services as mobile applications. Designers of traveler information apps (TIA) must consider which activities travelers need to perform during all phases of an intermodal trip (travel chain) and provide adequate support. To date, the scientific literature lacks models of intermodal travel chains. In this paper, the need for support in each phase of an intermodal trip is examined: Intermodal chains are modeled with a literature-based and a scenario-based approach; phases, steps, activities, and required support are identified and compared to unimodal travel chains. Implications for the design of a TIA are discussed.