Assessing inter-modal passenger travel options
First Claim
1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
- receiving information about a starting location and a destination location in a geographic area;
determining, by one or more configured computing systems, multiple alternative travel options for a user to travel from the starting location to the destination location at a future time, the multiple alternative travel options each using a distinct combination of one or more modes of transportation from multiple available modes of transportation, wherein one of the multiple modes of transportation involves a private vehicle of the user traveling on one or more roads in the geographic area, wherein another of the multiple modes of transportation includes a mass transit system operating in the geographic area, and wherein the multiple alternative travel options include at least one travel option using the private vehicle of the user and at least one travel option using the mass transit system;
obtaining, by the one or more configured computing systems, information about traffic conditions on the one or more roads at the future time by predicting at a current time the traffic conditions on the one or more roads at the future time;
obtaining, by the one or more configured computing systems, transit vehicle deviation information that indicates expected differences at the future time between scheduled and actual arrival times for transit vehicles of the mass transit system at one or more transit embarkation locations, the obtaining of the transit vehicle deviation information including predicting at the current time the expected differences at the future time between the scheduled and actual arrival times;
assessing, by the one or more configured computing systems, costs associated with using each of the multiple alternative travel options to travel from the starting location to the destination location at the future time, the assessed costs being based at least in part on the obtained information about the traffic conditions and on the obtained transit vehicle deviation information; and
providing information about one or more of the multiple alternative travel options in a manner that reflects the assessed costs, to enable the user to use one of the multiple alternative travel options to travel at the future time from the starting location to the destination location.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Techniques are described for using information regarding road traffic and other types of transportation-related information to determine and/or assess alternative inter-modal passenger travel options in a geographic area that supports multiple modes of transportation. For example, a particular user may have multiple alternatives for travel from a starting location to a destination location in the geographic area, including to use alternative modes of transportation (e.g., private vehicle, bus, train, walking, etc.) for some or all of the travel, and these alternatives may have different travel-related characteristics in different situations (e.g., depending on current road traffic; mass transit schedules and current actual deviations; travel-related fees for gas, parking, mass transit, etc; parking availability; etc.). Multiple alternative travel options are thus assessed for a given situation based on multiple types of information, enabling one or more preferred travel options for the given situation to be identified and used.
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Citations
42 Claims
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1. A computer-implemented method comprising:
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receiving information about a starting location and a destination location in a geographic area; determining, by one or more configured computing systems, multiple alternative travel options for a user to travel from the starting location to the destination location at a future time, the multiple alternative travel options each using a distinct combination of one or more modes of transportation from multiple available modes of transportation, wherein one of the multiple modes of transportation involves a private vehicle of the user traveling on one or more roads in the geographic area, wherein another of the multiple modes of transportation includes a mass transit system operating in the geographic area, and wherein the multiple alternative travel options include at least one travel option using the private vehicle of the user and at least one travel option using the mass transit system; obtaining, by the one or more configured computing systems, information about traffic conditions on the one or more roads at the future time by predicting at a current time the traffic conditions on the one or more roads at the future time; obtaining, by the one or more configured computing systems, transit vehicle deviation information that indicates expected differences at the future time between scheduled and actual arrival times for transit vehicles of the mass transit system at one or more transit embarkation locations, the obtaining of the transit vehicle deviation information including predicting at the current time the expected differences at the future time between the scheduled and actual arrival times; assessing, by the one or more configured computing systems, costs associated with using each of the multiple alternative travel options to travel from the starting location to the destination location at the future time, the assessed costs being based at least in part on the obtained information about the traffic conditions and on the obtained transit vehicle deviation information; and providing information about one or more of the multiple alternative travel options in a manner that reflects the assessed costs, to enable the user to use one of the multiple alternative travel options to travel at the future time from the starting location to the destination location. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24)
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25. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having stored contents that configure a computing device to perform a method, the method comprising:
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obtaining, by the configured computing device, information about traffic conditions on one or more roads at an indicated time; predicting, by the configured computing device, differences between scheduled and actual arrival times corresponding to the indicated time at one or more transit embarkation locations for transit vehicles of a mass transit system operating in a geographic area that includes the one or more roads; assessing, by the configured computing device, multiple alternative travel options for a user to travel from a starting location to a destination location using one or more modes of transportation from multiple available modes of transportation, wherein at least one of the multiple alternative travel options includes using at least one of the transit embarkation locations of the mass transit system, and wherein the assessing is based at least in part on the obtained information about the traffic conditions at the indicated time and on the predicted differences between the scheduled and actual arrival times at the one or more transit embarkation locations; and providing information about one or more of the multiple alternative travel options in a manner that reflects the assessing, wherein the one or more alternative travel options include the at least one alternative travel option. - View Dependent Claims (26, 27, 28, 40, 41, 42)
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29. A configured system, comprising:
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one or more processors of one or more computing devices; and one or more modules that are configured to, when executed by at least one of the one or more processors, assess travel options for one or more users by, for each of the one or more users; determining one or more alternative travel options for the user to travel from a starting location to a destination location at an indicated time, wherein at least one of multiple modes of transportation involves private vehicles traveling on one or more roads and at least one of the multiple modes of transportation involves a mass transit system operating in a geographic area that includes the one or more roads, and wherein at least one of the alternative travel options uses the mass transit system; obtaining information about traffic conditions on the one or more roads for the indicated time; predicting differences between scheduled and actual arrival times corresponding to the indicated time at one or more transit embarkation locations for transit vehicles of the mass transit system; assessing the one or more alternative travel options for the user based at least in part on the obtained information about the traffic conditions at the indicated time and on the predicted differences between the scheduled and actual arrival times at the one or more transit embarkation locations; and providing information for the user about the one or more alternative travel options in a manner that reflects the assessing. - View Dependent Claims (30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 37, 38, 39)
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35. A computer-implemented method comprising:
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providing, by a configured computing device associated with a user, a request to an inter-modal travel option assessment system for assessment of one or more options for the user to travel from a starting location to a destination location in a geographic area using one or more of multiple available modes of transportation in the geographic area; receiving, by the configured computing device and in response to the provided request, assessment information for one or more of multiple determined alternative travel options for the user to travel from the starting location to the destination location at one or more indicated times, wherein the multiple alternative travel options each use a distinct combination of one or more of the multiple available modes of transportation, wherein at least one of the multiple modes of transportation involves private vehicles traveling on one or more roads in the geographic area and at least one of the multiple modes of transportation involves a mass transit system operating in the geographic area, wherein the received assessment information indicates assessed costs for the one or more alternative travel options that are based at least in part on information about traffic conditions on the one or more roads at the one or more indicated times and on information about predicted differences between scheduled and actual arrival times corresponding to the one or more indicated times at one or more transit locations for transit vehicles of the mass transit system; and using, by the configured computing device, the received assessment information to enable the user to use one of the multiple determined alternative travel options to travel at one of the indicated times from the starting location to the destination location. - View Dependent Claims (36)
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Specification