Dynamic Transportation Planning and Operations: Concept, Framework and Applications in China

Abstract

Transportation systems are large, complex and dynamic. Traditional transportation planning methods are based on 4-step travel demand forecast models, which are not good at describing the dynamic characteristics of transportation systems. On the basis of the existing research, this paper presents the concept of Dynamic Transportation Planning and Operations (DTPO), and explains the connotation and application of DTPO in recurrent and non-recurrent scenarios. In addition, a simulation- based DTPO Approach (SDTPOA) is put forward and a DTPO Platform which integrates travel demand model and traffic simulator is designed. The functions of each module in the DTPO Platform are explained in details as well as the operating mechanism of the platform under both recurrent and non-recurrent situations. The DTPO Platform adopts agent-based travel demand model, which can depict the real world better so as to replace the conventional travel demand models. As the key component of the DTPO Platform, Agent-based Modeling (ABM) is analyzed in this paper.