Experiment of boundedly rational route choice behavior and the model under satisficing rule

Abstract

In this paper, the authors study the boundedly rational route choice behavior under the Simon's satisficing rule. A laboratory experiment is presented to verify the participants' boundedly rational route choice behavior. By introducing the concept of aspiration level which is specific to each person, the authors develop a novel model of the problem in a parallel-link network and derive the properties of boundedly rational user equilibrium (BRUE) state. Conditions for ensuring the existence and uniqueness of the BRUE solution are derived. A solution method is proposed to find the unique BRUE state. Numerical examples are presented to demonstrate the theoretical analyses.