How do car drivers react when listening to traffic reports on incidents affecting their route? In order to find this out a comprehensive two-week survey was carried out in the Stockholm region. 660 drivers were registered during the morning rush hours and later the same day interviewed about their journey. Further eight local radio stations broadcasting traffic information were taped and analysed. Roughly 10% of the car commuters in Stockholm receive traffic reports about incidents potentially affecting them on their route. 40% of those drivers did not notice any incident or considered the message to be incorrect while the others thought it was accurate. Two thirds of those who had received the incident reports did not change their driving behaviour while 17% chose an alternative route and 20% drove more carefully, raised their attention or took other tactical manoeuvring steps. For the covering abstract see IRRD E102946.
Abstract