Analysis of factors affecting truck travel times under ATIS environment

Abstract

This paper investigates the average trip travel time for trucks during an incident, with real-time traffic information from (1) variable message signs (VMS); (2) combination of VMS and travel time displays (TTD); and (3) dynamic route guidance systems (DRGS). The evaluation was carried out with a microscopic traffic simulation model, in a network that consisted of a 26.5 km expressway and its parallel arterials. A factorial experiment was designed to investigate the effect of five factors, which were the level of traffic information available to truck drivers, network traffic demand, incident locations, incident severity and percentage background traffic which was familiar with the network. Our results confirmed that the five factors contributed significantly in affecting the average truck travel time. There were significantly interactions between two factors with the exception of the level of traffic information and incident severity.