Modeling route choice behavior using the concepts of regret and rejoice

Although the classic multinomial logit model has been widely applied in a variety of choice contexts, its strict IIA property makes it difficult to apply to route choice behavior because alternative routes overlap. Several models have therefore been proposed to resolve the issue. Contributing to the vast literature on route choice modeling, this paper explores reference dependent effects of route overlap based on the concepts of regret and rejoice. Route choice models based on these concepts that include the effects of route overlap are estimated. The models are estimated on route choice data extracted from GPS-data, collected in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Results show evidence of reference-dependent behavior in the sense that the effects of route overlap differ between regret and rejoice. These effects are significantly affected by travel distance.