A Study of User Value of Traffic Information Distributed Through Social Network based on Regret Theory

Traffic information in social network exerts vital influences on decision-making of travelers.In order to study user value of traffic information in the social network,generation and propagation of traffic information distributed through social network are analyzed,and its characteristics are extracted from a perspective of information behavior.A model of user value is developed based on regret theory while utilities of travelers′route choices and updating methods of traffic information are given.Based on those methods,characteristics of user value of traffic information shared in the so-cial network are analyzed from positive and negative effects,respectively.Different scenes of information transmission are taken as case studies to verify the user value of traffic information in the social networks.Results show that traffic infor-mation in the social network contributes to decision-making of travelers,the regret value of travel decisions reduced by 20% in effective scenes.However,the user value reduces with continuous propagation of information in the social net-work.In addition,over-propagated traffic information has negative effects on decision-making.