Factors Affecting Drivers’ Consideration Set of Route Alternatives

In a two-stage choice modeling process, determining drivers’ consideration set of route alternatives is an essential component. The misspecification of the size and composition of the considered choice set may lead to biased estimates and fallacious predicted demand levels. However, the way individual drivers derive their actual consideration set of route alternatives, and factors affecting the size and composition of these choice sets is still unknown. The key role of choice set definition and the need to get some insights regarding drivers’ actual consideration set has motivated this research. Data has been collected through a web-based data collection framework, designed to collect information on drivers’ actual consideration set of route alternatives. The survey was conducted in the Greater Montreal Area and information on 506 drivers declaring 988 route alternatives was collected. Then, the effect of six broad categories of factors on the size of drivers’ consideration sets has been studied. These categories include personal attributes, declared factors, behavioral indicators, incentives, awareness determinants, and spatial, temporal and environmental components. Accordingly, four types of behavior were distinguished with regard to the size of drivers’ consideration sets, namely “Determined cautious drivers”, “Biased habitual drivers”, “Middling impartial drivers”, and “Swayable conscious drivers”. Important factors and behavioral traits affecting drivers’ choice selection behavior can be embedded in the non-compensatory choice set formation step to generate and select more behaviorally realistic route alternatives. Moreover, the observed choice set can improve model’s estimation and prediction efficiency by providing detailed information regarding travellers’ preferences..

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADB10 Standing Committee on Traveler Behavior and Values.
• Authors:
  • Alizadeh, Hamzeh
  • Morency, Catherine
  • Saunier, Nicolas
  • Farooq, Bilal
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: 16p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Behavior; Choice models; Drivers; Revealed preferences; Route choice
• Geographic Terms: Montreal (Canada)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01661386
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-05374
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 27 2018 9:45AM