Given the growing costs of delivering 511 systems to suit the myriad of dissemination platforms available (not the least of which is in-car systems), it is probable that the public sectors involvement will consolidate inthe collection and generation of data, and data warehousing to support the private sector delivery of traveler information services. To ensure social equity, these public-private sector arrangements should be structured (through licensing and regulation) to encourage competition amongst the private sector agencies, and to guarantee the continued free provision of basic services for multi-modal travel information over multiple platforms, including IVR. The private sector is not quite prepared to deliver on thisvision as of yet, but it can be anticipated this in the not-too-distant future. The private sector is, and will continue to be in a better financial position to develop new services for the traveler. It isn't difficult toimagine a day in the near future when you'll be able to climb onto a bus,or get into your car and get true 511 information free and bundled with your Smartphone wireless service that is fully voice activated and connected to a headset or your dashboard through Bluetooth or near-field communications. And it will have been deployed without public sector funding.
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