California Partners for Advanced Transportation Technology

This paper presents a discussion on how traffic information is obtained and how the congestion of a major freeway affects travel behavior. It reports on survey results of commuters affected by two highway incidents south of San Francisco. The survey collected information on travel behavior, how the traffic information was obtained, and how it influenced route, model of travel and departure time. Results of the surveys suggest that travel behavior is largely unaffected by individual incidents of congestion. The study is also one of several designed to provide an assessment of the impact of the TravInfo traveler advisory telephone system (TATS) in the San Francisco Bay Area.