Route-choice models reflecting the use of travel navigation information in a vehicle-based microscopic simulation system

To evaluate the impacts of traveller information through microscopic simulation, it is essential and critical to build route-choice models that are expected to correctly represent the use of traveller information by various categories of drivers. Urban commuters' route choices are usually based on the perceived delay between actual arrival time and preferred arrival time (indifference band of route delay). In this study, a fuzzy set is used to represent the effect of an indifference band of route delay on the tendency for a specific category of drivers to change routes. Fuzzy sets are used to describe the reactions of drivers to traveller information with respect to their tendency to change routes. This methodology shows potential to more realistically represent the effects of real-time information on route choice than can be accomplished using binary choice models.