Impact of Smartphone Applications on Trip Routing and Congestion Management

Proliferation of mobile devices with routing apps such as Google Maps, Waze, INRIX, TomTom, etc. has made possible congestion avoidance through real-time re-routing of vehicles for any mobile-enabled driver. However, to date, the real impacts of these routing apps on system and local traffic across the roadway infrastructure are largely unknown. There is a limited amount of research that has broadly investigated issues such as the impact of social media on transportation policy (Gal-Tzur et al., Bregman and Watkins), usage patterns of smartphone apps (Jones et al.), and use of gaming concepts to influence driver behavior (McCall and Koenig, Wang et al.). However, there is a dearth of research investigating the impact of routing apps on trip routing or travel behavior. This study attempts to fill this gap and gather evidence and quantify the relationship between routing app usage and propensity of alternative route choices by routing app users.

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $206661
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3551747104

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development and Education Center (STRIDE)

  University of Florida
  365 Weil Hall
  Gainesville, FL  United States  32611
• Project Managers:

  Tucker-Thomas, Dawn

• Performing Organizations:

  Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta

  790 Atlantic Drive
  Atlanta, GA  United States  30332-0355

  Jackson State University, Jackson

  Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  Jackson, MS  United States  39217-0168

  Florida International University

  Division of Research
  11200 SW 8th St, MARC 430
  Miami, FL  United States  33199
• Principal Investigators:

  Guin, Angshuman

• Start Date: 20180315
• Expected Completion Date: 20190314
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Behavior; Congestion management systems; Drivers; Impacts; Mobile applications; Route choice; Routing; Smartphones; Surveys; Traffic congestion; Travel behavior
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01659456
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development and Education Center (STRIDE)
• Contract Numbers: 69A3551747104
• Files: UTC, RiP
• Created Date: Feb 6 2018 11:32AM