Evaluation of risk perception in route choice experiments: an application of the Cumulative Prospect Theory

The paper focuses on the analysis of the traveler's behavior in a route choice context in presence of information. In general, in case of choice contexts where the uncertainty is due to the actual travel times variances and/or the information accuracy, travelers' reaction, usually modeled by considering the utility maximization paradigm, may be affected by the risk perception. However, depending on the considered tool for collecting data (driving vs. web-based simulator) different behaviors (such as risk aversion) may be observed. This paper aims to applying the Cumulative Prospect theory in order to model travelers' behavior in a risky route choice context using data collected by different tools. In particular, in this paper data collected by (static) driving simulator and (web-based) travel simulator are compared by aggregated analysis. Finally, the results of the modelling approach are shown in order to properly evaluate how the simulation environment may affect the travelers' risk perception by introducing a bias in alternative choice.