DRIVERS' RESPONSE TO TRAFFIC AND TRAVEL INFORMATION OF THE HANSHIN EXPRESSWAY

The Hanshin Expressway provides traffic and travel information such as travel time, congestion and incidents through various devices. The objective of providing appropriate information is to support drivers' own decision making on their travel behavior at any place and time in route, as well as at home or office before departure, and consequently to opitimize the traffic flows on the expressway. This paper aims to study drivers' response to the traffic and travel information provided by the traffic control system of the Hanshin Expressway. The results of the large-scale questionnaire survey conducted in 1997 help us understand how drivers evaluate the present information providing system and use traffic information for their travel behavior. Drivers' needs for information types and devices are also studied to consider the framework of the traffic control system in the next generation. For the covering abstract, see IRRD 490001.