An active area of current research is in the use of modeling techniques to estimate the impacts of ITS deployment. In particular, the area of dynamic route guidance and ATIS user services has inspired a number of simulation studies. This paper presents an iterative simulation and market acceptance model to replace the exogenous parameter-setting approaches of earlier work. The paper presents some preliminary reslts obtained in a small test network which quantifies a maximum rational market for two ATIS user services (dynamic route guidance and pre-trip multi-modal route planning). The market picture obtained by this technique is driven by individual traveler choices to purchase ATIS user services over the long run. Thus, the picture obtained allows for some insight into the question of whether an unregulated, purely competitive ATIS market makes for a beneficial overall system solution.
Abstract