Improving the road network performance with dynamic route guidance by considering the indifference band of road users

When applying dynamic route guidance to improve the road network performance, the interests of the road authorities and the road users are likely to conflict. Road users are normally aiming at minimising their travel times by choosing the time-shortest route, whereas the authorities might want to send road users to a time-longer alternative to prevent phenomena like capacity drop and spill-back. In this study, the authors demonstrate how, in such a situation, bounded rationality and indifference bands (IB) of road users can be used to improve the network performance, such that the road users will not experience being disadvantaged by the advice. An interpretation and utilisation of the IBs in a route guidance control approach is proposed, which degrades the routes such that the network performance deterioration is prevented while the IBs of road users are respected. By means of a simulation test case, the potential gain in network performance of different IBs is evaluated. Results show a reduction in total travel time of 5% compared with user equilibrium, in case of an IB of 4 min for a trip of ∼22 min, and up to 14% in case of an IB of 10 min.