Abstract:In recent years, with an increased desire for better urban transportation systems arising from environmental and increased levels of traffic congestion concerns, there has been an increased need for better modeling in the transportation planning process. Much of the emphasis has been on gaining a better understanding of the drivers' route choice. It is in the area of traffic assignment where a better understanding of route choice would be beneficial. An important factor which is introduced in the past few years is traffic information and its effect on drivers' route choice.

Route choice models are usually formulated assuming that travelers minimize their travel time or distance. This dissertation tests this hypothesis. Route choice models are developed to identify the factors that influence route choice (the choice between two or more routes), and route switching (diversion from one route to another). The results show clearly that travel time is a very important factor on route choice, however, it is not the dominant, other factors are also important in explaining the route choice behavior, e.g. travel time reliability, travel distance, number of traffic signals, and traffic safety. Traffic information and several socioeconomic characteristics are also found to affect route choice and route switching.

Note:Ph.D. Dissertation