INVESTIGATION OF CRITERIA INFLUENCING ROUTE CHOICE: INITIAL ANALYSIS USING REVEALED AND STATED PREFERENCE DATA

Abstract

A third wave of route surveys was designed and conducted to gain an in-depth understanding of the factors that play important roles in the decision to choose a particular route; to investigate the potential impact of Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS) on route choice; and, to estimate commuters' willingness to use this information. The survey was undertaken in October 1993 targeting a sub-sample of the respondents of the previous two surveys. The analysis showed that minimizing travel time is the most important reason for choosing a commute route. However, it is not the sole reason for route choice. A large number of the respondents indicated the significance of other factors such as travel time variability, which illustrates the significance of the uncertainty measure in route choice, and introduces the significance of an information system that reduces the level of uncertainty and helps commuters select routes adaptively. Other important factors that influence route choice are minimizing travel distance and traffic safety on the chosen route. A majority of the respondents (79.9%) indicated that they would accept ATIS advice, and 40.6% indicated they would prefer to receive information before leaving for work (pre-trip). A binary logit model was developed to estimate respondents' choice to accept or reject an ATIS advice. The model showed that income, age, gender, and the flexibility of the work starting time affect the likelihood of accepting ATIS advice. Modeling route choice using stated preference observations, asserted the significance of travel time on route choice, and showed clearly that ATIS has a great potential in influencing commuters' route choice even when advising a route different from the usual one. Also several socio-economic factors such as age and gender were found to affect route choice.

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