Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2010
Publication Title
Transportation Research: Part B: Methodological
Volume
44
Issue
4
First Page
597
Keywords
Day-to-day traffic assignment model, Link-based, Wardrop user equilibrium
Last Page
608
Abstract
Existing day-to-day traffic assignment models are all built upon path flow variables. This paper demonstrates two essential shortcomings of these path-based models. One is that their application requires a given initial path flow pattern, which is typically unidentifiable, i.e., mathematically nonunique and practically unobservable. In particular, we show that, for the path-based models, different initial path flow patterns constituting the same link flow pattern generally gives different day-to-day link flow evolutions. The other shortcoming of the path-based models is the path-overlapping problem. That is, the path-based models ignore the interdependence among paths and thus can give very unreasonable results for networks with paths overlapping with each other. These two path-based problems exist for most (if not all) deterministic day-to-day dynamics whose fixed points are the classic Wardrop user equilibrium. To avoid the two path-based problems, we propose a day-to-day traffic assignment model that directly deals with link flow variables. Our link-based model captures travelers' cost-minimization behavior in their path finding as well as their inertia. The fixed point of our link-based dynamical system is the classic Wardrop user equilibrium.
DOI
10.1016/j.trb.2009.10.001
Recommended Citation
He, Xiaozheng; Guo, Xiaolei; and Liu, Henry X. (2010). A Link-Based Day-to-Day Traffic Assignment Model. Transportation Research: Part B: Methodological, 44 (4), 597-608.
https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/odettepub/47
Comments
NOTICE: this is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Transportation Research Part B: Methodological. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in Transportation Research Part B: Methodological 44 (4), 2010 and is available here.