ABSTRACT
In electronic route guidance systems the route selection algorithm is of great importance. The system is required to select the best route from an origin to a destination. In order to ensure a high level of user acceptance, the route selection logic should be the same as the decision logic of the user of the system. It is assumed the system works best if the driver is led over routes he would have selected with a full knowledge of all available routes. To develop the input for an algorithm for route selection, it is paramount to know the driver needs. The driver needs, in this context, relate to the reasons why car drivers prefer some routes over other routes. A number of potential benefits of electronic navigation systems are mentioned in the literature. They reduce total kilométrage and travel time (Armstrong, 1977; Jeffery, 1981a, 1981b), enable drivers to circumvent congested routes (Hounsell et al., 1988), result in fewer drivers getting lost (King and Lunenfeld, 1974), leading to safer behaviour (Färber et al., 1986). Furthermore, traffic safety will be increased by diminishing the required amount of controlled attention by navigation (van Winsum, 1987).
