Driving simulator‐based study of compliance behaviour with dynamic message sign route guidance

Ardeshiri, Anam; Jeihani, Mansoureh; Peeta, Srinivas · 2015 · Crossref

DOI: 10.1049/iet-its.2014.0164

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

Get this paper ↗ (DOI — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)

Summary

This study investigates driver compliance with Dynamic Message Sign (DMS) route guidance, addressing the limitations of traditional Stated Preference (SP) surveys which often fail to capture real-world decision-making complexities. The research employs a hybrid methodology combining a high-fidelity driving simulator (DS) with SP surveys to analyze how drivers respond to real-time traffic information. The study utilizes a 400 square kilometer network southwest of Baltimore, featuring three route alternatives, and involves 102 participants who completed 577 experiments. Five scenarios were designed to test varying travel time differences and traffic conditions, allowing for the assessment of factors such as travel time savings, information reliability, and learning from past experience. The results reveal significant discrepancies between stated intentions and revealed choices. While SP surveys predicted a smooth decline in choosing the faster route as travel time advantages shifted, the DS data showed distinct inertia and anchoring effects; drivers were reluctant to switch routes unless the alternative offered a substantial time advantage (e.g., a statistically significant shift occurred only when the alternative was five minutes faster). Overall DMS compliance was higher in the simulator (65%) than in SP responses (59%), suggesting that the immersive environment better reflects actual driver behavior. Furthermore, only 55% to 60% of participants’ DS choices were consistent with their prior SP responses, highlighting the unreliability of stated intent for predicting real-world compliance. Key determinants of compliance identified through multivariate analysis include travel time savings, the perceived reliability of DMS information, and drive frequency. Travel time difference was a highly significant positive predictor, with odds of compliance increasing by 37% for every minute of additional savings. Perceived reliability also positively influenced compliance, whereas income level and demographic factors like age or gender were insignificant. Interestingly, drive frequency had a complex effect; while experience generally improved learning, early repeated drives sometimes led to exploration rather than optimization. The study concludes that effective DMS strategies must account for behavioral inertia and the critical role of information reliability, advocating for disaggregate modeling approaches that integrate simulator-based revealed preferences to overcome the biases inherent in SP-only analyses.

Key finding

Driver compliance with dynamic message sign guidance is significantly influenced by travel time savings, information reliability, and past experience, while revealed simulator choices frequently diverge from stated preferences due to inertia and anchoring effects.

Methodology

simulator

Sample size: 102

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed.

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• speed choice

Information type

What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).

• Empirical Findings: behavioral performance data, observational prevalence
• Theoretical Contribution: computational model