Transferring insights into commuter behavior dynamics from laboratory experiments to field surveys

The principal objective of this paper is to perform a comparative analysis and interpretation of commuter behavior revealed in field surveys and laboratory experiments. The experimental studies have provided valuable insights into complex human decision behavior, but they were primarily intended to develop the underlying theoretical constructs, and were based primarily on simulated traffic situations. The transferability of these insights to commuter behavior in real traffic systems has not been sufficiently established, and remains to be accomplished as the next logical step towards the operational use of such models of commuter behavior. Thus, in this paper, comparisons between the field survey results and the experiments involving real commuters in a simulated traffic system are performed to confirm and better interpret the models and the conclusions resulting from such experiments. Such informal tests of external validity are very important from a methodological standpoint as laboratory and stated preference experiments continue to play an increasingly important role in travel behavior research, especially in connection with the introduction of new technologies.