Route choice under uncertainty : effects of recommendations

The provision of travel information may serve as a means of changing the behavior of individual travelers in ways that are beneficial to the transportation system at large. On the basis of the argument that a better understanding of travel behavior In the presence of traffic Information Is required, this paper reports on the analysis of a computer experiment investigating the effects of recommendations with different underlying control objectives on route choice under uncertainty. The results indicate that when potential congestion is anticipated, travelers use the recommendations provided as an indicator of the choices of other travelers as they conjecture the rate of compliance to reduce the uncertainty when they make decisions.