Analyzing drivers’ perceived service quality of variable message signs (VMS)

Recent advance in VMS technology has made it viable to ease traffic congestion and improve road traffic efficiency. However, the drivers’ low compliance with the posted information may limit its performance to ease traffic congestion and improve traffic safety. This paper explores drivers’ attitude to the service quality of VMS system resulted from the identified predominant influencing factors. A questionnaire is developed and used for surveying 9,600 drivers in Beijing, China. The collected data are analyzed with a multiple indicators and multiple causes (MIMIC) model considering different driver categories (e.g., private car driver, office car driver, taxi driver). The results show that the causal relationships between latent variables and socio-demographic characteristic is significant. Driving frequency, attitude towards contents of VMS, drivers’ decision-making and the effectiveness of VMS message can directly and indirectly affect driver’s perceived quality of service. The attitude towards formats of VMS indirectly affect their QoS resulting from the effectiveness of VMS message, while there is no indirect impact for taxi drivers. Besides, the drivers’ decision-making directly affects the perceived quality of service for private car drivers and office car drivers, but there is no impact for taxi drivers. The findings of this study can provide guidance and reference for urban authorities to perform the relevant actions required to meet user expectations.