Do People Choose Shortest Paths

This paper presents a stated choice data collection for route choice behavior using a survey among 200 commuters to New River Valley Mall in Montgomery County, VA. This research takes into account the traveler’s route choice for a specific origin destination, having two different routes with almost the same travel time - a highway (US 460) and an arterial roadway (Main Street). The study results show that 85% of travelers choose the highway and only 15% choose the arterial roadway. During off-peak hours, 50% of the study respondents stated that they chose the highway because it has less travel time. This percentage increases to 68% during traffic peak hours. Route choice behavior is different among different socio-economic groups. Interestingly, this study concluded that travelers do not have an accurate perception of travel time on each route although they have lived in the area long enough to learn about each route. Therefore, the assumption that people have complete information about routes is not supported by this study’s findings. Travelers who want to choose shortest paths might not do it due to their incomplete information on route travel times. Thus, this factor should be considered into driver’s route choice behavior modeling.