Benefit Measurements of Highway Electronic Route Guidance

This paper develops and presents economic user benefits associated with alternative Electronic Route Guidance Systems (ERGS) for a sample test highway network in Springfield, VA (45,000 population), which contains several major freeway and arterial streets. The basis conclusions of the analysis are: (1) Benefits accrue faster than costs for all loop density patterns studied which range from 15% to 100% deployment of the test network; (2) the most critical components of the benefit functions were found to be the cost per accident and the value of lost time; (3) the benefits of a fully developed Electronic Route Guidance System (ERGS) in the test network were $3,270 per day; and (4) if in the vehicle display unit, costs are increased to values over $135, there will be no excess accident and mistake avoidance benefits with a fully developed static ERGS.