Surveying commuter behavior: Designing a motorist information system

A ‘Motorist Information Survey’ was conducted by University of Washington investigators as part of a project sponsored by the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and the Federal Highway Administration under the State’s Freeway Arterial Management Effort (FAME). This survey, with responses on 62 variables from 3893 Seattle commuters, gathered information about motorist behavior and decision processes, particularly as they relate to the design and delivery of motorist information. Results showed that motorists have greater flexibility as to the time they leave work than the time they leave home, experience some stress during their commute, and most value saving commute time. Motorists are more likely to change their routes from work than from home, to divert to known routes sooner than to unknown routes, and to be influenced by traffic information, congestion, and time of day. Motorists prefer to receive traffic information before entering the freeway as traffic information has the greatest influence on route choice and departure time and all motorists rely most on commercial radio for receipt of traffic information and find it most useful. A majority of motorists want to see highway advisory radio developed first, followed by a phone hot-line, and a dedicated cable TV station.