The Impact of Potentially Realistic Fabricated Road Sign Messages on Route Change

This article studies self-reported route change behavior of 4,706 licensed drivers in the continental U.S. through a stated preference survey when they encounter road sign messages. Respondents are asked to score their likelihood of route change and speed change on a 5-point Likert scale to three messages: (1) "Heavy Traffic Due to Accident," (2) "Road Closure Due to Police Activity," and (3) "Storm Watch, Flooding in Area Soon." We fulfill three objectives. First, we identify the relationship between the route change behavior and socioeconomic and attitudinal-related factors. Second, we explore the impact of road sign messages with different contents on route change behavior. Third, we test the association between route change and speed change behaviors. The results demonstrate that: (1) the response of participants to compromised dynamic message signs varies according to the socioeconomic standing and attitude of participants, (2) the response of participants varies under different messages, and socioeconomic and attitudinal factors impact this differentiation, and (3) the likelihood of route change is positively associated with slowing down. This means, in practice, a malicious adversary has the potential to shunt and disturb traffic by disseminating fabricated messages and engineering route choice of drivers.