Advanced Travel Time Information and Drivers' Route Choice: Stated Preference Data

The effects of travel time information on drivers' route choice were investigated using a stated preference approach. Two experiments were run in which the average travel time and travel time variability (in the form of a range of travel times) along two routes were varied systematically. In the first experiment the travel time information was displayed on a sheet of paper to a participant seated on a desk. The results were consistent with previous findings that drivers choose the route that minimizes their average travel while attempting to keep travel time variability at a minimum. The second experiment utilized essentially the same experimental design but now travel time information was displayed in a virtual environment through which a participant had to drive. In this experiment, the results were consistent with the notion that drivers used the cognitively more efficient strategy of choosing the route that simply minimized their average travel time without always attempting to process travel time variability information. Implications for methodologies of gathering route choice data are also discussed.