Abstract
Understanding and modelling route choice behaviour is central to predicting the formation and propagation of urban road congestion. Yet within conventional literature disagreements persist around the nature of route choice behaviour, and how it should be modelled. In this paper, both the shortest path and anchor-based perspectives on route choice behaviour are explored through an empirical analysis of nearly 700,000 minicab routes across London, United Kingdom. In the first set of analyses, the degree of similarity between observed routes and possible shortest paths is established. Shortest paths demonstrate poor performance in predicting both observed route choice and characteristics. The second stage of analysis explores the influence of specific urban features, named anchors, in route choice. These analyses show that certain features attract more route choices than would be expected were individuals choosing route based on cost minimisation alone. Instead, the results indicate that major urban features form the basis of route choice planning – being selected disproportionately more often, and causing asymmetry in route choice volumes by direction of travel. At a finer scale, decisions made at minor road features are furthermore demonstrated to influence routing patterns. The results indicate a need to revisit the basis of how routes are modelled, shifting from the shortest path perspective to a mechanism structured around urban features. In concluding, the main trends are synthesised within an initial framework for route choice modelling, and presents potential extensions of this research.
Highlights
It is well established that the route choice decisions taken by individuals contribute directly to the formation of collective patterns of behaviour observed in the city
The other has arisen within spatial cognition and behavioural geography research, establishing the behavioural and cognitive constructs behind route choice mainly within the pedestrian context
Prior indications suggest that urban features form the basis of route choice, there remains a lack of insight into the process through which these choices are made
Summary
It is well established that the route choice decisions taken by individuals contribute directly to the formation of collective patterns of behaviour observed in the city. Rather than individuals having complete knowledge of road network arrangement, various researchers identified that memory of cities is shaped around anchors, salient features in urban space, around which subjective knowledge is built and recalled (Lynch, 1960; Siegel and White, 1975; Passini, 1984; Golledge and Spector, 1978; Golledge et al, 1985; Couclelis et al, 1987) These reference points have been shown to be different for drivers and pedestrians – the former favouring route-based structures such as bridges, major routes and junctions, the latter using prominent buildings and signposts (Carr and Schissler, 1969). The paper concludes in discussing the findings, and outlining potential future avenues for the outcomes of this research
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