EMPIRICAL STUDIES OF CAR DRIVER ROUTE CHOICE IN HERTFORDSHIRE

Over the past seven years, four road networks (spilt into other sub-networks) have been manually monitored in the County of Hertfordshire. All sub-networks offered one 'main' through route to drivers and at least one alternative route ('rat-run'). The drivers' routes through these sub-networkds were observed, and an attempt was made to gain some insight as to their choice of route. These observations demonstrated that minimum journey time is the most important criterion affecting drivers' route choice. The findings of the field studies were reinforced by the results of a questionnaire survey.