Dynamic Traffic Assignment with More Flexible Modelling within Links

Abstract

Traffic network models tend to become very large even for medium-size static assignment problems. Adding a time dimension, together with time-varying flows and travel times within links and queues, greatly increases the scale and complexity of the problem. In view of this, to retain tractability in dynamic traffic assignment (DTA) formulations, especially in mathematical programming formulations, additional assumptions are normally introduced. In particular, the time varying flows and travel times within links are formulated as so-called whole-link models. We consider the most commonly used of these whole-link models and some of their limitations. In current whole-link travel-time models, a vehicle's travel time on a link is treated as a function only of the number of vehicles on the link at the moment the vehicle enters. We first relax this by letting a vehicle's travel time depend on the inflow rate when it enters and the outflow rate when it exits. We further relax the dynamic assignment formulation by stating it as a bi-level program, consisting of a network model and a set of link travel time sub-models, one for each link. The former (the network model) takes the link travel times as bounded and assigns flows to links and routes. The latter (the set of link models) does the reverse, that is, takes link inflows as given and finds bounds on link travel times. We solve this combined model by iterating between the network model and link sub-models until a consistent solution is found. This decomposition allows a much wider range of link flow or travel time models to be used. In particular, the link travel time models need not be whole-link models and can be detailed models of flow, speed and density varying along the link. In our numerical examples, algorithms designed to solve this bi-level program converged quickly, but much remains to be done in exploring this approach further. The algorithms for solving the bi-level formulation may be interpreted as traveller learning behaviour, hence as a day-to-day traffic dynamics. Thus, even though in our experiments the algorithms always converged, their behaviour is still of interest even if they cycled rather than converged. Directions for further research are noted. The bi-level model can be extended to handle issues and features similar to those addressed by other DTA models.