Comprehending the roles of traveler perception of travel time reliability on route choice behavior

Abstract

This study investigates travelers’ perception of and response to travel time information and its reliability, in terms of their route choice behavior elicited through a full-scale medium-fidelity driving simulator and a stated preference (SP) survey. The driving simulator-based experiments are conducted using a 220 mi2 network in Maryland, and different scenarios of traffic and driving conditions, information provision, and reliability levels are considered. The network consists of three major routes between an origin and destination, one of which is a toll road. Travel time information for all alternative routes is provided using a variable message sign (VMS). Approximately 216 experiment runs are conducted using a sample of 65 participants from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds. Binary and Multinomial logistic regression as well as Multinomial Probit models are used to analyze the collected data. The results illustrate that trip purpose, travel time reliability, and income are important determinants of drivers’ route choice and information-related compliance behaviors. Of key implications for the design of information dissemination services, the route choice behavior revealed through the driving simulator is shown to be significantly different from that stated in the survey questionnaire.