Real-Time Variable Message Sign–Based Route Guidance Consistent with Driver Behavior

The variable message sign (VMS) represents a cost-effective mechanism for disseminating information to drivers unequipped to receive personalized information. The VMS can be used during incidents to divert traffic to less congested areas of the network and circumvent lengthy queues, better utilize network capacity, and improve system performance. A VMS control heuristic framework is proposed and evaluated that seeks diversion during incidents to enable a traffic system controller to favorably manage traffic conditions in real time. The framework ensures consistency with driver diversion response behavior, is responsive to changing traffic conditions, enables computational tractability through stage-based online implementation, and ensures the spatial and temporal consistency of the displayed messages. A hybrid framework is used that consists of offline and online components to determine the information for the VMS. The ability to display messages consistent with driver diversion behavior represents a valuable tool for the controller to enhance system effectiveness by simultaneously satisfying systemwide and individual user objectives. Data on driver VMS response attitudes from the Borman Expressway corridor in northwestern Indiana and simulated experiments are used to derive insights into the practical effectiveness of the proposed VMS control heuristic.