A study of users’ intention to voluntarily contribute real-time traffic information through mobile devices

Advanced traffic information systems are increasingly available to provide users with real-time traffic information services. Nowadays, this kind of public information collection relies extensively on contributions made by end users on a voluntary basis. Although the literature has looked into the motivations that may lead to free online contributions, it has largely overlooked the actual use of the same systems based on mobile devices. Considering the issue from the perspectives of complexity, social effects and practical considerations, this paper explores and examines factors influencing mobile device users to freely contribute to a traffic information system. The methodology is planned to be a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods. From the first stage of this research, which involves three face-to-face interviews and a focus group discussion among mobile application developers and users, we gleaned interesting results which are instructive for future empirical work.