Route Choice by Drivers

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Route Choice by Drivers

S. E. Lunn

This report describes two experiments designed to discover how drivers locate unfamiliar destinations and how efficient they are in doing so. Two different groups of drivers were asked to drive from the Transport and Road Research Laboratory to destinations in Chertsey and Bedford, distances of approximately 25 and 100 km respectively. The time taken and distances travelled to the destinations were compared with similar data obtained when the subjects were given guidance on the optimum return routes to TRRL. Day and night time driving were also studied on the Chertsey experiment. The drivers found difficulty in locating the final destinations in Chertsey and Bedford, but there was also considerable wastage in getting from TRRL to the outskirts of these towns. It is estimated that the national average wastage on all journeys might be at least 4 per cent, that much of this is probably committed unwittingly, and that between about 25 and 55 per cent of all drivers might incur en route journey costs greater than 10 per cent in excess of minimum route costs. Some of the errors made by the drivers on the experiments could have been avoided by improved signing and possibly by better maps; further research is needed to show the likely effect of such improvements, and also how much of excess distance travelled is incurred unintentionally. (Copyright (c) Crown Copyright 1978.)