Drivers' Route Choice Response to Surface Street Variable Message Sign Displaying Travel Time of both Urban Freeway and Local Street

摘要

For some modern urban freeway traveler information systems, variable message sign (VMS) are also installed on the surface street adjoining freeway entrance. However, those surface street VMS only provide information about freeway conditions and they do not provide information about local streets. This paper explores drivers' route choice response to the surface street VMS that displays travel time of both freeway and local street (called S-VMS) in the context of Shanghai, China. A stated preference (SP) survey in the form of on-site questionnaire survey was conducted to collect behavioral data. Using SP data, a binary Logit model is estimated to identify factors that influence drivers' route choice behavior in response to S-VMS. It was found that drivers' decision on route choice between freeway and street can be significantly influenced by S-VMS information. The impact of S-VMS information depends on driver characteristics, street characteristics, and S-VMS message. Delay on the freeway, driving experience, and freeway incident, serve as positive factors in drivers' decision about choosing the local street. Number of signals on the street, frequency of freeway use, and drivers being young and female, serve as negative factors in drivers' decision about choosing the street. Taxi drivers are less likely to choose the street. The findings have useful implications for better design and operation of advanced traveler information systems.