Behavioral issues in the design and evaluation of Advanced Traveler Information Systems

Decisions about implementing Advanced Traveler Information Systems (ATIS) should be based on the individual and social benefits expected from such technologies, which will be strongly dependent on the ways travelers respond to these new information sources. This paper explores the behavioral issues important to understanding traveler reactions to ATIS; it discusses evaluation strategies, including stated preference methods and observation of revealed behavior in laboratory simulations and field tests with various degrees of control and complexity. Advantages and disadvantages of different approaches are reviewed, and the experimental design challenges of site selection, recruitment of test subjects, and measurement of behavior are explored.