The Game
Context
When travelling within a city, travellers face several decisions regarding:
Altogether, these individual decisions shape the state of a transportation network. However, at the same time that the states of the network are the product of travellers' choices, the characteristics and states of the network influence their future decisions. It is in this sense that understanding the behaviour of travellers, in particular, the motives of their choices, is fundamental to predict the future states of the network.
The approach that the MAGnUM project takes to investigate the travellers’ behaviour is through mobility decision game (MDG) experiments. In these experiments, participants are faced with simulated decision problems that mimic real-life situations when travelling. The information gathered with the experiments is later used to fit choice models, with the purpose of predicting what the choices of travellers would be under different circumstances
Objectives
The Mobility Decision Game
The mobility decision game (MDG) is an online platform that allows to carry out controlled choice experiments at large-scale. The network description in the MDG is based on the full map of a real road network, such as Lyon (France). In the MDG, the players are faced with different decision problems or missions, e.g., arriving to work at 9:00 am. Based on information about the traffic conditions and the monetary costs, the players can then choose the modes of transportation, the departure time, and the route that they wish to follow to complete their trips. After a trip is started, players may reroute at predefined decision intersections.
The decisions are send to a microscopic traffic simulator environment, which is in charge of reproducing the traffic conditions in the network. Thus, all players act in the simulation environment. Multiple OD pairs can be assigned simultaneously to players during one game session.
In addition, the MDG can be configured to dynamically simulate traffic conditions with different demand levels, and to show traffic information in the form of congestion maps and/or travel time estimates. Thus, the MDG permits to investigate the determinants of player decisions: information, cost, network characteristics, and purpose of the trip.
The characteristics of the mobility decision game are:
When travelling within a city, travellers face several decisions regarding:
- the activity to engage,
- the destination of the trip,
- the mode choice,
- the departure time, and
- the route choice.
Altogether, these individual decisions shape the state of a transportation network. However, at the same time that the states of the network are the product of travellers' choices, the characteristics and states of the network influence their future decisions. It is in this sense that understanding the behaviour of travellers, in particular, the motives of their choices, is fundamental to predict the future states of the network.
The approach that the MAGnUM project takes to investigate the travellers’ behaviour is through mobility decision game (MDG) experiments. In these experiments, participants are faced with simulated decision problems that mimic real-life situations when travelling. The information gathered with the experiments is later used to fit choice models, with the purpose of predicting what the choices of travellers would be under different circumstances
Objectives
- Study the travellers’ decisions under different traffic scenarios and trip purposes: route, mode and departure time choices.
- Study of the role that the cost and traffic information have in the travellers’ choices.
- Evaluation of different choice models to predict traveller’s behaviour.
The Mobility Decision Game
The mobility decision game (MDG) is an online platform that allows to carry out controlled choice experiments at large-scale. The network description in the MDG is based on the full map of a real road network, such as Lyon (France). In the MDG, the players are faced with different decision problems or missions, e.g., arriving to work at 9:00 am. Based on information about the traffic conditions and the monetary costs, the players can then choose the modes of transportation, the departure time, and the route that they wish to follow to complete their trips. After a trip is started, players may reroute at predefined decision intersections.
The decisions are send to a microscopic traffic simulator environment, which is in charge of reproducing the traffic conditions in the network. Thus, all players act in the simulation environment. Multiple OD pairs can be assigned simultaneously to players during one game session.
In addition, the MDG can be configured to dynamically simulate traffic conditions with different demand levels, and to show traffic information in the form of congestion maps and/or travel time estimates. Thus, the MDG permits to investigate the determinants of player decisions: information, cost, network characteristics, and purpose of the trip.
The characteristics of the mobility decision game are:
- online capabilities for large-scsle experiments (hundreds of simultaneous players),
- Waze-like interface on large-scale networks,
- scenarios produced with a microscopic simulator,
- changing traffic conditions in the network,
- multimodal (metro, bus, car),
- multiple OD pairs and objectives of the trip,
- rerouting,
