A progressive hybrid set covering based algorithm for the traffic counting location problem

Abstract

This work tackles the Traffic Counting Location Problem (TCLP), where we aim finding the best number and location of counting stations to cover a road network in order to obtain its traffic flows. It is important to reduce deployment, maintenance and operation costs of traffic stations. We propose a progressive hybrid algorithm based on exact, heuristic and hybrid approaches embedded on a set covering framework to solve the TCLP. This algorithm employs a simple and innovative concept which has not yet been explored in the literature. Twenty-six real-world instances obtained from the Brazilian states are used in the computational experiments and the results show that the TCLP can be solved more efficiently than previous approaches, with 84% of the instances solved optimally, and three new best known solutions found.