Route choice corresponding to shorter street and urban freeway travel time displayed by street variable message signs (SVMS) was investigated.Stated preference survey was conducted to collect behavioral data,and a binary Logit model was established to identify the factors influencing drivers' route choice decisions.The results show that,SVMS has significant impact on route choice and the impact depends on driver attribute,street characteristics,and SVMS messages.Specifically,older male drivers with longer years of driving experience are more likely to choose local streets in response to freeway delay information indicated by SVMS; frequent freeway users,having high acceptance of freeway VMS,are less likely to choose local streets; longer freeway delay as well as freeway incidentinduced delay and fewer signalized intersections on local streets serve as positive factors for choosing local streets.The study aims to give theoretical and policy implications for better design of unexpected events oriented traffic guidance strategy.