Correlation analysis between OD demand and traffic flow in urban traffic network

Abstract

Traffic congestion has become a serious problem in urban area. It may be alleviated by effectively controlling the external conditions affecting the traffic networks. In this paper, various traffic assignment methods are employed to analyze the correlation between OD demand and traffic flow in urban traffic network. To explore the effects of external conditions, three algorithms including all or nothing algorithm, Dial algorithm and MSA algorithm are applied for traffic networks. We study the sensitivity of traffic assignment methods with variation of external conditions (e.g. the number of road sections, the number of intermediate nodes, the number of OD pairs). The comparison results show that the degree of influences depends on OD demands. Additionally, the traffic congestion can be alleviated by removing the node or sections of traffic networks, which can be used to develop traffic management strategies.