Making of Travel Choices Under Uncertainty and Information: Validation of Travel Simulator

This paper presents a computer based travel simulator for collecting data concerning the use of next-generation ATISes and their effects of travelers' choice making in a multimodal travel environment. The tool distinguishes itself by presenting a completely abstract multimodal transport network, where knowledge levels are fully controlled for in terms of awareness of mode-route combinations as well as in terms of variability of characteristics of known alternatives. Furthermore, it contains an information service-module that provides a variety of advanced types of travel information, with controlled for levels of reliability. These novel features warrant an extensive validation of the travel simulator. Such a validation is performed using a dataset obtained among 264 participants. The analyses suggest that indeed, the simulator succeeds in collecting data with a high face validity on multimodal travel choice making under provision of advanced types of travel information.