University of Maryland    Route Driving Survey    HCIL

The survey is now closed.
 Please find the raw results inline.

This survey is being conducted by the Human-Computer Interaction Lab (HCIL) at the University of Maryland. Our goal is to better understand how people choose which route to take for their repeated trips when there are multiple ways to go. We use the term "repeated trip" to mean any regularly traveled pair of origin-destination locations, such as your commute from home to work, and the term "route" to refer to the particular set of roads you take for a repeated trip.

You are under no obligation to complete the survey, but your responses will help inform our research on developing tools to better support the tasks described above. The survey takes only a few minutes to complete and your responses and participation will be kept anonymous.

If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us.

Thank you!
Aaron Clamage, Faculty Research Assistant in Computer Science (aclamage@cs.umd.edu)
Ben Bederson, Associate Professor of Computer Science and Director of HCIL
Catherine Plaisant, Associate Research Scientist

Terminology

We use the term repeated trip to mean any regularly traveled pair of origin-destination locations, such as  your commute from home to work.  Since there might be multiple ways to drive from one place to another, we use the term route to refer to the particular set of roads you take for a repeated trip.   Finally, we use the term best route to refer to the route that is "best" for some criteria you specify (e.g.  the fastest route, the shortest route, the route with the fewest number of stops).

1. Where do you drive most frequently?

29%Metropolitan areas 
58%Suburban areas
14%Rural areas

2. How frequently do you argue with family, friends or colleagues over which route is the "best" way to go?

42%Almost never   
36%Once in a while
18%Sometimes
3%Often
1%All the time

3. How many repeated trips with alternate routes do you drive regularly?  Remember these might include your commute to work, as well as trips to the gym, the airport, the train station, the shopping center, parks, friends, etc.

21%Less than 3
46%3 - 5
18%5 - 7
7%7 - 10
8%More than 10

4. For how many of those trips are you unsure which route is the "best" one?

85%Less than 3
11%3 - 5
3%5 - 7
1%7 - 10
0%More than 10

5. Please list as many of your repeated trips as you can think of and how frequently you drive them.  If your trip starts at home, you can just say something like "to the grocery store."  Otherwise please say from where to where, like "from my parents' house to my sister's house."

     times per
   times per
   times per
   times per
   times per
   times per
   times per
   times per
   times per
   times per

6. Please rate how often you choose a route for the following reasons.

 
Not Often Very Often
I only know one way
1  53% 2  12% 3  9% 4  8% 5  3%
I have one way I like, and I think it is the "best" route
1  7% 2  10% 3  12% 4  28% 5  33%
I have one way I like, and I don't care if it is the "best" route
1  26% 2    17% 3  17% 4  15% 5  9%
I consider different routes and choose the one that seems "best"
1  3% 2  8% 3  19% 4  23% 5  37%

7. Please rate how important the following criteria are to you when choosing a route.

 
Not Important Very Important
Time of Day  
1  4% 2  5% 3  8% 4  29% 5  50%
Traffic conditions  
1  1% 2  2% 3  7% 4  20% 5  68%
Weather information
1  18% 2  22% 3  19% 4  21% 5  17%
Road conditions
1  10% 2  19% 3  20% 4  23% 5  25%
Types of roads (e.g. highways, backroads)
1  11% 2  11% 3  18% 4  30% 5  26%
Speed limits
1  17% 2  18% 3  23% 4  23% 5  15%
Average travel time
1  3% 2  3% 3  19% 4  34% 5  38%
Minimum and maximum travel times
1  6% 2  8% 3  24% 4  31% 5  27%
Average traveling speed
1  7% 2  12% 3  31% 4  28% 5  19%
Route length
1  8% 2  12% 3  26% 4  37% 5  13%
Total time I will be stopped in traffic
1  3% 2  5% 3  14% 4  30% 5  44%
Number of times I will have to stop in traffic
1  4% 2  8% 3  16% 4  33% 5  35%
Fuel consumption
1  15% 2  18% 3  27% 4  19% 5  16%
Testimonials from my friends
1  30% 2  26% 3  29% 4  9% 5  2%

8. Please specify any other criteria that are important to you when choosing a route.

9. What source do you use to get traffic information for your repeated trips?  Check all that apply.

17% None
67% Radio
25% Television
25% Internet.  Please specify the site you use: 
24%Friends/Colleagues
11% Other.  Please specify. 

Questions # 10 and # 11 have no right answers. We only want to understand which criteria are most important to you when choosing a route.

10.  Suppose you need to travel somewhere for an important appointment and you have two routes to choose from.  Route A has an average travel time of 30 minutes, but might take as long as 2 hours.  Route B has an average travel time of 45 minutes, but will never take longer than 1 hour.  Which route would you choose?

8%Route A
82%Route B
8%I don't know

11.  Which route from the previous question would you choose if you did *not* need to arrive at a certain time for an appointment?

42%Route A
45%Route B
11%I don't know

12. How often do you adjust the time you leave for a particular route based on traffic conditions?

9%Almost never   
15%Once in a while
24%Sometimes
34%Often
15%All the time

13. Imagine there was a system that could keep track of your repeated trips for you and help you choose which routes to take in the future. It would record which way you went, how fast you drove, how many stops you had to make, the total travel time and more.  Assuming the system was completely private and no one else could see your information, would you want to use it?

79% 19%
Yes      No

14. What information would you like the system to tell you about your commonly traveled routes?

15. How useful would it be for the system to help you with the following tasks?

 
Not Useful Very Useful
Find the best route for a given trip and time
1  4% 2  2% 3  11% 4  28% 5  49%
Find the best time to leave for a given route
1  5% 2  6% 3  13% 4  31% 5  39%
Find routes to places I have been to, but do not remember exactly where they are
1  7% 2  5% 3  17% 4  32% 5  33%
Find the best route based on my personal driving style
1  9% 2  7% 3  20% 4  31% 5  27%
Find people with similar routes for carpooling
1  44% 2  21% 3  16% 4  8% 5  5%
Find new routes to places I have not been before
1  5% 2  6% 3  16% 4  34% 5  32%
Add my own information about routes (speed limits, potholes, etc)
1  10% 2  10% 3  21% 4  32% 5  21%
View a map showing only the roads I drive on frequently
1  21% 2  19% 3  25% 4  19% 5  10%
View traffic incidents along routes (e.g. accident on I-95)
1  4% 2  4% 3  5% 4  30% 5  51%
View detailed statistics for each route (e.g. average speed, number of stops, total time)
1  8% 2  7% 3  20% 4  30% 5  30%
View other peoples' routes to find a good alternative
1  11% 2  17% 3  28% 4  25% 5  14%
View other peoples' annotations to their routes
1  17% 2  17% 3  25% 4  23% 5  11%
Generate useful directions for my common routes
1  10% 2  7% 3  20% 4  35% 5  22%

16. What other route planning tasks would you like the system to help you with?

17. If the system allowed you to share information about your personal driving history with others, who would you be willing to share that information with? Check all that apply.

25% No one
35% A group of people that I chose
45% Anyone, as long as my identity was hidden
3% Anyone, even if people could see who I was

18. Please describe what information you would be willing to share and why for each group you selected in the previous question.

19. What is your gender?

30%Male
67%Female

20. What is your age?

12%18-30   
23%31-45   
53%46-60   
9%61-70   
1%Over 75  

21. What is your occupation?   

22. Where do you live?

Country/Region:

92%US
0.3%Asia
0%Africa
0.3%Australia
3%Europe
0.3%Mideast
0%Latin America
3%North America
0%South America
Copyright 2006, University of Maryland Human-Computer Interaction Lab.
All rights reserved.