Study of effectiveness of traveler information in transportation network

The effectiveness of traveler information is whether the real time traffic information can effectively improve the status of the existing transportation network. Under the assumption of linear cost function, the impact by traveler information system in a simple network was investigated. Using two models namely stochastic and deterministic user equilibrium assignment, the study deduced some important conclusions. These conclusions reveal that the effectiveness of the information is completely determined by the capacity of the road in network, and it is independent of traffic flow. Computational results for two representative examples are reported, which demonstrate the validity of the conclusions.