How reliable is this route? Predictive travel time and reliability for anticipatory traveler information systems

Schemes are addressed for providing predictive travel time information in consistent anticipatory route guidance systems. A user-equilibrium time-dependent traffic assignment algorithm with the ability for multiple-user class network loading is used to generate consistent anticipatory route guidance information when a fraction of the population is equipped to receive and act on that information. Both a theoretical analysis and a simulation-based approach are presented to evaluate the provision of anticipatory route guidance information in terms of experienced path travel times and their variations. Results indicate that the proposed anticipatory route guidance strategy is accurate and reliable and can improve real-time traffic network performance.