A model for assessing the effects of dynamic travel time information via variable message signs

In view of the serious traffic congestion during peak hours in most metropo litan areas around the world and recent improvement of information technolo gy, there is a growing aspiration to alleviate road congestion by applicati ons of electronic information and communication technology. Providing drive rs with dynamic travel time information such as estimated journey times on major routes should help drivers to select better routes and guide them to utilise existing expressway network. This can be regarded as one possible s trategy for effective traffic management. This paper aims to investigate th e effects and benefits of providing dynamic travel time information to driv ers via variable message signs at the expressway network. In order to asses s the effects of the dynamic driver information system with making use of t he variable message signs, a time-dependent traffic assignment model is pro posed. A numerical example is used to illustrate the effects of the dynamic travel time information via variable message signs.