A Choice Model for Departure Time Based on Schedule Delay Costs

Uncertain travel time can lead to negative effects.One of which is the increasing of schedule delay cost. Transportation information provided to travelers can reduce the negative effects and the schedule delay cost.In order to e-valuate the negative effects and the value of transportation information,a model for departure time selection with uncer-tain travel time is developed.Assuming that the distribution of travel time is different for different departure time,travel-ers can obtain average travel conditions or traffic information based on daily status from Advanced Traffic Information System(ATIS).A traveler predicts his/her travel time and selects departure time based on perceived value of that infor-mation from ATIS.A case study verifies the influences of uncertain travel time,different information conditions,and the quality of forecasts on general travel costs of travelers.The results show that the benefits of traffic information should not only be reflected in saving of travel time,but also in reducing schedule delay costs by about 30% ~40%.