Route Choice Behavior in a Driving Simulator with Real-time Information

摘要

This research studies travelers' route choice behavior in a driving simulator withreal-time information en-route. We investigate whether travelers plan strategically forreal-time information en-route or simply select a fixed path from origin to destination atthe beginning of a trip, and whether network complexity and a parallel driving task affectsubjects' strategic thinking ability. In this study, strategic thinking refers to a traveler'sroute choice decision taking into account future diversion possibilities downstreamenabled by information at the diversion node. All of the subjects in this study participatedin driving-simulator-based tests while half of the subjects participated in additional PC-based tests. Three types of maps were used. The first type required a one-time choice atthe beginning of a trip to test the traveler's risk attitude. The other two types offered routechoices both at the beginning of and during a trip to test the traveler's strategic thinking.The study shows that a significant portion of route choice decisions are strategic in arealistic driving simulator environment. Furthermore, different network complexitiesimpose different cognitive demands on a subject and affect his/her strategic thinkingability. A subject tends to be more strategic in a simple network. Lastly, a parallel drivingtask does not significantly affect a subject's strategic thinking ability. This seeminglycounterintuitive conclusion might be caused by the simplicity of the tested network.