Comparing Alternative Route Planning Techniques: A Comparative User Study on Melbourne, Dhaka and Copenhagen Road Networks

Many modern navigation systems and map-based services do not only provide the fastest route from a source location <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$s$</tex-math></inline-formula> to a target location <inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$t$</tex-math></inline-formula> but also provide a few alternative routes to the users as more options to choose from. Consequently, computing alternative paths has received significant research attention. However, it is unclear which of the existing approaches generates alternative routes of better quality because the quality of these alternatives is mostly subjective. Motivated by this, in this paper, we present a user study conducted on the road networks of Melbourne, Dhaka and Copenhagen that compares the quality (as perceived by the users) of the alternative routes generated by four of the most popular existing approaches including the…