Improving the road network performance with dynamic route guidance by considering the indifference band of road users

Abstract

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.

Analysis of inertial choice behavior based expected and experienced savings from a real-world route choice experiment

“…It is argued that this 'range of inattention' along the demand curve gives retailers an incentive for small price increments to increase profit [8]. Analogically and as conceptualised and demonstrated in earlier work by the authors [9,10], when applied in the context of transport thresholds may give policy makers, road operators and traffic engineers an incentive 'lever' to modify choice attributes, which in turn will increase the performance of the traffic system.…”

“…The aforementioned findings offer an illustration of the size of thresholds under different circumstances. Examples of their application are given in [9,10] which showed a reduction in total travel time of 5% compared to user equilibrium in case of an threshold of 4 minutes for a trip of approximately 22 minutes. Additionally, the improvement in the network performance increased with an increasing threholds, up to 14% in case of a threshold of 10 minutes.…”

Performance evaluation of integrated strategy of vehicle route guidance and traffic signal control using traffic simulation

“…It is difficult to define the exact user behaviours for each VRG approach. However, as seen from the practical application viewpoint, different VRG approaches can be characterised by two aspects, which are different updating frequencies of the guidance information and different user compliance rates [21]. Therefore, in this study, four updating frequencies and four user compliance rates are selected in order to capture the operational characteristics of various VRG approaches.…”

Route Choice Behavior: Understanding the Impact of Asymmetric Preference on Travelers’ Decision Making

“…In the area of travel behavior research, travelers' inertia was defined as the tendency to stick to the alternative that they had previously chosen [15,[20][21][22][23][24]. Many empirical studies provided support for the inertial route choice behavior [7,25,26]. For example, Chorus and Dellaert [15] thought that the wish to save cognitive resources could lead travelers to inertial choices; Site and Filippi [27] explained that phenomenon in terms of "loss aversion"-the disadvantages of a move from the status quo are valued more heavily than the advantages.…”