TRAVEL SIMULATORS FOR DATA-COLLECTION ON DRIVER BEHAVIOR IN THE PRESENCE OF INFORMATION

Understanding traveler response to potential ATIS services is critical for designing such services and evaluating their effectiveness. Exten sive data is required for developing the models necessary to provide t his understanding. In this paper we examine one source of such data: t raveler simulators. We make a distinction between travel simulators, u sed to study the travelers response to information acquisition, and dr iving simulators, which are elaborate tools used mainly for human fact ors research. Traveler simulators have the potential to provide a weal th of data collected relatively inexpensively under controlled conditi ons. However the data may suffer from biases introduced because of the laboratory nature of travel simulators. We examine various existing s imulators and comment on their advantages and disadvantages. We make r ecommendations for simulator design characteristics that increase the reliability of the data collected and suggest enhancements so that cur rent simulators can be used for the collection of data related to acce ss and acquisition of ATIS products as well. We conclude the paper wit h recommendations for future research in the area.