Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

Information impacts on route choice and learning behavior in a congested network

Lu, Xuan; Gao, Song; Ben-Elia, Eran

Information impacts on route choice and learning behavior in a congested network Thumbnail


Authors

Xuan Lu

Song Gao

Eran Ben-Elia



Abstract

Every traveler makes route choices in an uncertain environment that includes random disruptions to the traffic system such as incidents, bad weather, and random behavior of fellow travelers. The premise underlying the development of advanced traveler information systems-that better-informed travelers make better route choices-should be tested. This paper studies en route real-time information about the occurrence of an incident and ex post information on forgone payoffs (FPs) (i.e., travel times on nonchosen routes). Data were collected from an interactive experiment in which subjects made multiple rounds of route choices on a hypothetical network subject to random capacity reductions, and travel times were determined by performance functions of route flows from the previous round. En route real-time information increased the network's travel-time savings and reliability under the experimental setting, yet FP information had the opposite effect. The most efficient information structure in terms of travel-time savings is a combination of real-time information and no FP information. Real-time information at downstream nodes encourages participants' strategic behavior at the origin. FP information appears to increase risk-seeking behavior; it encourages route switching without real-time information and suppresses it with real-time information. These results could be valuable for policy evaluations of further developments of advanced traveler information systems.

Citation

Lu, X., Gao, S., & Ben-Elia, E. (2011). Information impacts on route choice and learning behavior in a congested network. Transportation Research Record, 2243(2243), 89-98. https://doi.org/10.3141/2243-11

Journal Article Type Article
Publication Date Dec 1, 2011
Deposit Date Jun 23, 2011
Publicly Available Date Dec 2, 2016
Journal Transportation Research Record
Print ISSN 0361-1981
Publisher SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 2243
Issue 2243
Pages 89-98
DOI https://doi.org/10.3141/2243-11
Keywords route choice behavior, real-time information, forgone payoff, interactive experiment, stochastic network, strategic route choice, learning
Public URL https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/969950
Publisher URL http://www.metapress.com/content/120399/

Files





Downloadable Citations