Evaluation of Risk Perception in Route Choice Experiments: An Application of the Cumulative Prospect Theory

The paper focuses on the analysis of the traveler´s behavior in a route choice context in presence of information. In general, in case of choice contexts where the uncertainty is due to the actual travel times variances and/or the information accuracy, travelers´ reaction, usually modeled by considering the utility maximization paradigm, may be affected by the risk perception. However, depending on the considered tool for collecting data (driving vs. web-based simulator) different behaviors (such as risk aversion) may be observed. This paper aims to applying the Cumulative Prospect theory in order to model travelers´ behavior in a risky route choice context using data collected by different tools. In particular, in this paper data collected by (static) driving simulator and (web-based) travel simulator are compared by aggregated analysis. Finally, the results of the modelling approach are shown in order to properly evaluate how the simulation environment may affect the travelers´ risk perception by introducing a bias in alternative choice.