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

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.

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