Understanding route switch behavior: An analysis using GPS based data

The objective of this paper is to study route switch behavior to detect which trip and individual characteristics most influence the choice of multiple routes for the same origin-destination (OD) trip. In this study we used a database of 361 morning commute trips, regarding 66 users, collected in the metropolitan area of Cagliari (Italy) during the "Casteddu Mobility Styles" survey. Data were collected for a 14 days period through a personal probe system called Activity Locator (Meloni et al., 2011), a smartphone that integrates a GPS logger for the acquisition of the routes and an activity/travel diary. Mixed logit models are estimated, in order to take into account the variability of user perception. Results show that route switch behavior is influenced by the number of traffic lights per km, percent of highways, time perception, gender, age, individual income and driving experience in relation with the minutes per km.