Traffic Incident Information Release: Is It Always Positive?

Various traveler information systems are currently being developed in order to alleviate traffic congestion and enhance the performance of road networks through guiding travel behavior. This paper investigates the effectiveness of releasing traffic incident information in a simple network with parallel routes and linear travel cost fimctions. It is found that for some routes, the total network cost saving is available through incident information release only when the traffic condition is wrecked to a certain degree caused by the incident. There also exists such case that the incident information release for some routes can always benefit the transportation system regardless of the incident detail. These findings can improve our understanding to the impacts of traveler information systems on travel behavior and system performance.