The Value of Travel Information: A Search-Theoretic Approach

Abstract

This article presents a formulation of information acquisition that uses search theory to evaluate the value of information. The value of information is the added utility from being able to choose from the available travel alternatives after having received the information. There are three main advantages to the formulation: first, it results in a parsimonious model of information acquisition and travel choice. Second, it enables the use of observed information acquisition behavior for the estimation of travel related parameters (e.g., value of time). Third, its parameters are easily interpretable. The formulation is tested using data from a multimodal travel simulator with information provision. Estimation results provide face validity to the formulation. Results indicate that travelers on non-business trips attach particular importance to mean travel times, whereas during business trips travel time variability also plays an important role. Also, it is found that travelers prefer information that adds previously unknown alternatives to their choice set over information that provides estimates for uncertain attributes of known alternatives. A substantial heterogeneity exists with respect to travelers' valuation of the costs and benefits of travel information.

Cognitive cost in route choice with real-time information: An exploratory analysis

“…The cognitive process leading to such behavior is however not described in these studies. Some similarities exist with the work of Chorus et al (2010) (extended in Chorus et al, In review) who model the value of information in terms of the difference between current utility and the anticipated utility after the information acquisition. They use data collected in a simulator and include a monetary cost of information whereas we are interested in the cognitive cost.…”

“…The magnitude of the cognitive cost is postulated based on the empirical evidence from an SP survey reported in Chorus et al (2010), where the non-monetary cost of information search is approximately one magnitude larger than the travel time (in minutes) coefficient. The magnitude of the benefit coefficient is close to the cognitive cost so that neither the cognitive cost nor the search benefit will dominate the choice and thus avoids obscuring the trade-off between the two factors.…”

Information, communication, travel behavior and accessibility

“…In general, the importance of these aspects follows from the notion that travelers dislike uncertainty per se (i.e., are risk averse). The existence of this dislike of uncertainty has been well documented in the context of travel time uncertainty (e.g., Lam and Small, 2001;Bates et al, 2001;Rietveld et al, 2001;Brownstone and Small, 2005) as well as the travel costs uncertainty and uncertainty about waiting times (e.g., Chorus et al, 2010).…”

The Impact of Information Availability on Destination Choice

“…Several papers focus on the impact on travelers of the absence or of imperfect information. Examples of such studies are de Palma and Picard (2006), Emmerink et al (1996), Chorus et al (2007); see also the review of Rietveld (2011). Those papers generally examine the relationship between information availability and transport systems' efficiency; some of them conclude that providing more information is not necessarily welfare improving.…”