Asymmetric closed-form route choice models: Formulations and comparative applications

Among the discrete choice contexts discussed in the transportation literature, route choice is particularly challenging, for which several model structures with different assumptions were developed. Recently, a group of closed-form multinomial models with asymmetric choice probability functions have been proposed to resolve the class imbalance problem in mode choice. However, these asymmetric models can hardly be estimated when the choice sets vary with observations. This paper fills the gap between the asymmetric models and the existing literature, and also adapt the models to route choice by proposing three approaches to further parameterize the shape parameter. This paper also tests the asymmetric models by two independent GPS datasets: taxi data collected in Guangzhou as well as bicycle data collected in Tel Aviv. Comparative analysis is conducted between taxi drivers and cyclists on their route choice behavior. The results indicate the existence of class imbalance in both cases. Moreover, the asymmetric models have case-dependent performance, and different parameterizations correspond to different interpretations of the asymmetry in route choice.