An evaluation of travel time on urban road network

Abstract

There is an increasing demand for the accurate travel time, however the inadequacy of traditional travel time is highlighted on urban streets relative to freeways. In this paper, the travel time on urban road network, of which the traffic lights result in much random control delay times, is divided into two components: link valid travel time (LVTT) and intersection delay time (IDT). What is more, aimed to the existing problems of the traditional signal control delay model, an optimized signal control delay model was proposed to calculate the IDT accurately. Besides, a link merger algorithm is developed to increase the reliability of the travel time estimation. All the work in this paper is evaluated using real FCD of Beijing and Shanghai. The contrast experiments indicate that the expression of urban streets travel time proposed in this paper is very suitable. Besides the optimized model and link merger algorithm have achieved great effect. It is also shown the reliability of OD (Origin-Destination) travel time has been greatly improved, which can boost the application of the dynamic route guidance system as well as pretty much to reduce the congestion in the urban road network.