Semester of Graduation

Fall 2023

Degree

Master of Science in Civil Engineering (MSCE)

Department

Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering

Document Type

Thesis

Abstract

When drivers encounter traffic congestion, one of the most common ways to avoid excessive delays is to divert to an alternate route. Despite the commonplace nature of such routing decisions, relatively little is known about the specific influencers, motivators, and preferences that affect diversion choices under disrupted conditions. Understanding these driver motivations is important for improving the ability of transportation authorities to plan, design, operate, and maintain transportation networks. The research described in this thesis utilizes a driver survey to investigate the situational factors and personal characteristics that may play a significant role in determining a decision to divert or selecting an alternate route from a set of multiple options. The findings show that drivers reported being the most willing to divert during highly urgent trips during life-threatening scenarios such as evacuations, while less urgent, discretionary trips such as shopping trips induced the lowest willingness to divert. The findings also showed that highly localized disruptions like roadway incidents and planned special events caused drivers to be more willing to divert than more widespread disruptions likely to affect multiple routes such as rush hour traffic jams and adverse weather events. Additionally, gender and age were both found to significantly affect driver diversion willingness across disruption types, but not across trip purposes, with female and older drivers being more willing to divert than male and younger drivers. These findings illustrate numerous trends that can help to improve the predictive capabilities of the most advanced behavioral traffic assignment models in use today.

Date

10-28-2023

Committee Chair

Wolshon, Brian

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