Background

Variable message signs (VMS) have been widely applied to alleviate traffic congestion by providing spatiotemporal information related to traffic and network conditions to drivers. There is a debate on whether the VMS information would lead to the less-alleviation of congestion or congestion transfer to the adjacent roads in the different traffic congestion situations due to the inappropriate VMS information. Additionally, it is still unknown how to find a practically applicable method to design the most effective VMS information for drivers.

Objective

In order to design and display the appropriate VMS information for drivers under different traffic conditions, this paper aims to identify the effects of VMS on individuals’ route choice behavior by exploring the different effects of VMS on the several separate groups. Drivers in these groups are homogenous in gender, driving experience, education level, occupation, and monthly income.

Methods

In the hypothetical scenario, a stated preference (SP) questionnaire was conducted to build the dataset consisting of 3462 samples from local private and taxi drivers. The decision tree via the chi-squared automatic interactive detector (CHAID) algorithm is utilized to split drivers into several groups, and further two fixed-parameter logistic regression models considering intra-heterogeneity between drivers (i.e., considering and not considering systematic taste variations), and random-parameter logistic regression models are employed to analyze the factors affecting driver route choice behavior of each group.

Results

Five groups with different driver characteristics are identified. Besides, the modeling results indicate that the effect of the VMS information on individual route choice behavior is heterogeneous. These findings include: (i) random-parameter logistic regression models have a significantly improved goodness-of-fit because of the lower AIC and BIC; (ii) compared with the stated cause information on road construction and congestion, the accident information had a larger effect on driver route choice behaviors; (iii) the route choice behaviors of drivers with more than 6-year driving experience are affected by the VMS information on road constructions, accidents, and the quantitative delay time; (V) the route choice behaviors of less-experienced female drivers were affected by display formats and display frequencies of VMS information.

Conclusions

The findings from this study can assist traffic authorities in designing the most appropriate VMS for different traffic congestions based on driver characteristic distribution and the road capacity for improving the practicability of VMS information and further provide the theoretical evidence for the design of in-vehicle personalized information service systems.

中文翻译：

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可变消息标志对途中路由选择行为的影响

背景

通过向驾驶员提供与交通和网络状况有关的时空信息，可变消息标志（VMS）已被广泛应用于缓解交通拥堵。关于VMS信息是否会由于不适当的VMS信息而导致在不同的交通拥挤情况下减少拥堵或将拥堵转移到相邻道路的争论较少。此外，如何找到一种切实可行的方法来为驾驶员设计最有效的VMS信息仍然是未知的。

目的

为了设计和显示适用于不同交通状况的驾驶员的VMS信息，本文旨在通过探索VMS对几个不同群体的不同影响，来识别VMS对个人路线选择行为的影响。这些组中的驾驶员在性别，驾驶经验，受教育程度，职业和月收入方面均相同。

方法

在假设的情况下，进行了明确的偏好（SP）问卷以构建数据集，该数据集由来自本地私人和出租车司机的3462个样本组成。通过卡方自动交互式检测器（CHAID）算法的决策树用于将驾驶员分为几组，并考虑驾驶员之间的异质性（即，考虑和不考虑系统的口味变化），进一步建立两个固定参数的逻辑回归模型，并采用随机参数Logistic回归模型分析影响各组驾驶员路线选择行为的因素。

结果

确定了五个具有不同驾驶员特征的组。此外，建模结果表明，VMS信息对单个路径选择行为的影响是异构的。这些发现包括：（i）由于较低的AIC和BIC，随机参数logistic回归模型具有显着改善的拟合优度；（ii）与所陈述的有关道路建设和拥堵的原因信息相比，事故信息对驾驶员路线选择行为的影响更大；（iii）具有6年以上驾驶经验的驾驶员的选路行为受到VMS道路建设，事故和定量延迟时间的影响; （V）经验不足的女性驾驶员的路线选择行为受VMS信息的显示格式和显示频率影响。

结论

这项研究的结果可以帮助交通管理部门根据驾驶员的特征分布和道路通行能力设计出最适合不同交通拥堵的VMS，以提高VMS信息的实用性，并进一步为设计车载个性化信息提供理论依据。服务系统。