Investigation into factors affecting the route choice in “Rijnstreek-West” with the aid of a disaggregate logit model

Abstract

Based on an analysis of observed automobile routes, an investigation is made into the factors affecting choice of routes. As in previous studies, the attempt to determine the influence of time and distance simultaneously was unsuccessful. However, time was found to be an important factor in the description of route choice behaviour. An improved description of route choice behaviour is achieved if a differentiation according to road type is made or if intersections are included in the model as explanatory variables. The subjective or perceived generalized times caused by intersections are approximately 0.88 minutes and those caused by left-turn movements are 2.55 minutes. The result could further be improved by dividing the difference in generalized times between two routes by the root of the generalized times. A great advantage of this approach is also that it links up better with stochastic assignment models, in which traffic is randomly distributed over alternative routes. In particular for studies on extraneous traffic and the consequences of traffic-controls, the method presented here serves as a start for further investigation.