Transportation is an important contributor to environmental problems like declining air quality. Current traffic measures seek to optimize travel times, but fall short on the ideal of an ecologically friendly traffic system. The European research project eCoMove aims to reduce the overall fuel consumption in traffic by 20 percent by means of energy efficient driving behavior and energy efficient traffic management and control. This paper contributes to the understanding of the feasibility of this goal. Vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communication is a key element in the vision of eCoMove. In this paper the eCoMove concepts are presented by means of an in-depth look on the eco Adaptive Balancing and Control system. Preliminary studies on rerouting, green priority and speed advice at signalized intersections indicate signification environmental benefits.
Although travel time is probably one of the most important attributes in route choice, the shortest time route is often not the preferred route, according to several studies in the literature. This study tries to explain this finding by testing the hypothesis that choice makers may be able to estimate travel times correctly for routes that they prefer but are biased against alternatives even if these are faster. For a few choice sets of routes in the city of Enschede, Netherlands, respondents were asked to choose a route and provide their estimated travel times for both the preferred and the alternative routes. These travel times were then compared with actual travel times from a license plate study. The comparison confirmed the hypothesis. For chosen routes, perceived travel times correspond quite well with actual travel times on average, whereas for routes not chosen, perceived travel times are overestimated by 3 to 4 min on average. These results show that drivers are not able or do not want to evaluate routes objectively. This finding implies that within an indifference band of route delay or travel time inequality of on average 3 to 4 min, drivers are probably not willing to alter their route choice, even if the traffic situation, induced, for example, by traffic management measures, changes in a negative way for their preferred route.
Constrained cognitive abilities cause imperfections in drivers' choice behaviour and appear largely systematic and predictable. This study introduces the concept of 'effective control space' to build upon this knowledge as an opportunity to increase the effectiveness of Dynamic Traffic Management (DTM). Within the control space boundaries it is assumed that drivers do not act upon the effects of DTM measures, they behave as being indifferent to them. This study debates that: (i) drivers' ability to detect changes in attributes of their trip or the performance of a traffic system is limited, (ii) drivers make mistakes in estimating the value of such changes and (iii) drivers apply a great diversity of choice patterns but do not necessary adapt their choice. Hence, for some DTM measures to be effective effects should not exceed the control space boundaries, whereas other DTM measures need to give drivers an incentive that exceeds these boundaries. Knowledge on the effective control space may support road authorities to operationalise their measures most effectively. With the theories of indifference bands and decision-making as starting point a theoretical and conceptual framework are provided, supported by a numerical example to demonstrate how application can steer a system towards its optimal state.
When applying dynamic route guidance to improve the network performance, it is important to balance the interests of the road authorities and the road users. In this paper we will illustrate how bounded rationality and indifference bands can be taken into account in dynamic route guidance to improve the network performance while respecting the interests of road users. The paper elaborates on empirical findings reported in literature to propose a suitable interpretation and utilization of the indifference bands in a control approach. By means of a service level-oriented route guidance control approach we evaluated the potential gain in network performance of different absolute indifference bands. Results from a simulation test case show a reduction in total travel time of 5% compared to user equilibrium, in case of an indifference band of 4 minutes for a trip of approximately 22 minutes. The improvement in network performance increases with an increasing indifferent band, up to 14% in case of an indifference band of 10 minutes.
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