Use and Effects of Advanced Traveller Information Services (ATIS): A Review of the Literature

Advanced Travel Information Systems (ATISs) are designed to assist travellers in making better travel choices by providing pre-trip and en-route information such as travel times on the relevant alternatives. Travellers’ choices are likely to be sensitive to the accuracy of the provided information in addition to travel time uncertainty. A route-choice experiment with 36 participants, involving 20 repetitions under three different levels of information accuracy was conducted to investigate the impact of information accuracy. In each experiment respondents had to choose one of three routes (risky, useless and reliable). Provided information included descriptive information about the average estimated travel times for each route, prescriptive information regarding the suggested route and experiential feedback information about the actual travel times on all routes. Aggregate analysis using non-parametric statistics and disaggregate analysis using a mixed logit choice model were applied. The results suggest decreasing accuracy shifts choices mainly from the riskier to the reliable route but also to the useless alternative. Prescriptive information has the largest behavioural impact followed by descriptive and experiential feedback information. Risk attitudes also seem to play a role. The implications for ATIS design and future research are further discussed.

The impact of travel information's accuracy on route-choice

This paper aims to provide insights that help transport academics and policy makers appreciate the potentials and limitations of information provision as a means to changing car-drivers’ travel choices. The focus is on a modal shift from private car to public transport and changes in car-drivers’ choices for departure times and routes towards a more even distribution of traffic within the available road network. These insights are gained through a review of more than 15 years of literature concerning the use and effects of travel information among car-drivers. Based on the performed review, a number of generic, integrative insights are derived, including the following: it appears that our expectations with respect to the effects of information provision on travel choices in general may be mildly optimistic, particularly for behavioural changes not involving changes in mode-choice. In the longer term, the effects of information provision, when presented to travelers in suitable formats, are likely to be somewhat stronger than the short term effects, due to learning dynamics.

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Travel information as an instrument to change car- drivers' travel choices: a literature review

This study investigates route switching behavior on freeways in reaction to the provision of different types of real-time traffic information. The experimental design of the stated preference survey is based on four types of real-time information provided to travelers who were randomly selected at rest areas. The four types of real-time information defined in this paper are qualitative, quantitative, qualitative guidance, and quantitative guidance. The bounded rationality framework, also known as indifference band approach, is applied to model the freeway route switching behavior. Two important variables, travel time and travel cost, are included in the indifference band. In this study, the best route switching rule, travelers’ current routes as compared to the best route, is investigated to further provide valuable insights into freeways travelers’ route switching behavior with the provision of different types of real-time traffic information.

Route switching behavior on freeways with the provision of different types of real-time traffic information

This paper investigates the impact of schematic transit maps on passengers’ travel decisions. It does two things: First, it proposes an analysis framework that defines four types of information delivered from a transit map: distortion, restoration, codification, and cognition. It then considers the potential impact of this information on three types of travel decisions: location, mode, and path choices. 1 Second, it conducts an empirical analysis to explore the impact of the famous London tube map on passengers’ path choice in the London Underground (LUL). Using data collected by LUL from 1998 to 2005, the paper develops a path choice model and compares the influence between the distorted tube map (map distance) and reality (travel time) on passengers’ path choice behavior. Results show that the elasticity of the map distance is twice that of the travel time, which suggests that passengers often trust the tube map more than their own travel experience on deciding the “best” travel path. This is true even for the most experienced passengers using the system. The codification of transfer connections on the tube map, either as a simple dot or as an extended link, could affect passengers’ transfer decisions. The implications to transit operation and planning, such as trip assignments, overcrowding mitigation, and the deployment of Advanced Transit Information System (ATIS), are also discussed.

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Mind the map! The impact of transit maps on path choice in public transit

This study aims at analyzing drivers' behavior in acquiring and using traffic information in an environment with multiple information sources. Accordingly, information acquisition and reference models are developed in an effort to show the empirical relationship between drivers' reaction to multiple information sources, causal factors latent psychological ones, traffic conditions at the time of traveling and the accuracy of traffic information available. A route choice model is proposed that takes into account the information acquisition and reference process. Model validity is investigated using data collected on the Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway, which has four different types of information sources.

M. Taniguchi

Papers

Incorporating an information acquisition process into a route choice model with multiple information sources