Study On Influence Of VMS On Drivers’ Route Choice Behavior And Its Effect Analysis

With the continuous progress of urbanization,people’s living standard improves year by year and the number of automobile-owned is growing with each passing day.The traffic congestion issue becomes more and more obvious,which is seriously affecting the sustainable development of society.The appearance of intelligent traffic systems(ITS)provides an effective method to alleviate traffic congestion.As a part of ITS,variable message signs(VMS)induces traffic flow in the road network by delivering real-time information.It can also improve operational efficiency of road traffic system and effectively alleviate traffic congestion.VMS has been widely used in urban roads and highways all over the country.Wuxi,as the significant economic city in Yangtze River Delta,has long-term commitment to the development of outbound traffic and ignores the development of urban traffic.The number of vehicles shots up and the establishment of urban logistics distribution system has increased the proportion of freight cars,whereas urban expressway is constructed slowly.All of these have brought great pressure to urban traffic in Wuxi.Roads of Wuxi are seriously gridlocked.Thus,it is necessary to carry out in-depth study of remission of traffic congestion through VMS in Wuxi.In this paper,the Logistic regression model of drivers’ route choice is built to analyze the influencing factors.The effectiveness of VMS in alleviating traffic congestion in urban area of Wuxi city is analyzed by VISSIM simulation.Firstly,a SP survey is conducted to investigate drivers’ route choice behavior in Wuxi.Combined with the perennial rainy climate of Wuxi,a new factor influencing drivers’ route choice is proposed.The factor is choice habits in sleety weather.This paper carries out the statistical analysis of survey data preliminarily.Secondly,the binomial Logistic regression model of drivers’ route choice based on the VMS information is established.Analysis of critical factors affecting driver’s route choice behavior in both congestion and amble status is conducted.Finally,the VISSIM simulation model of drivers’ route choice based on VMS information is constructed.The object of simulation study is Jiefang Loop Road area in Wuxi.This paper observes the variation of the average speed and delay time after drivers in different road network status are induced by VMS.The simulation sets different drivers’ compliance rate parameters of VMS information.The results show that drivers’ optimal compliance rate of normal congestion state is 75%and the average speed of road network is increased by 22.72%,and the average delay time is reduced by 38.12%.The compliance rate is 65%when drivers are in congestion state caused by sleety weather.Relatively,the average speed is increased by 23.89%,and the average delay time is reduced by 40.83%.