Measuring the Reliability of Methods and Algorithms for Route Choice Set Generation: Empirical Evidence from a Survey in the Naples Metropolitan Area

Fulvio Simonelli,Fiore Tinessa,Francesca Pagliara,Ciro Buonocore

doi:10.2174/1874447802014010050

Fulvio Simonelli, Fiore Tinessa + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.2174/1874447802014010050

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Abstract

Background: Route choice set definition is a very sensitive phase of the route choice simulation. Several heuristics, generally based on shortest path algorithm repetition, give as output choice sets that are very large, lading to questions about their behavioural consistency. Objective: This paper proposes a comparison of the main route choice set generation methods, contrasting the results of the commonly implemented heuristics with the revealed choice sets of a sample of employees and students moving within the Metropolitan Area of Naples. Methods: We described the data collection process and provided a statistical analysis of the sample data. In addition, since coverage measures and performance indicators, usually applied in the literature, do not take into account any possible biases related to the generated choice set cardinality. The current work proposes an analysis of the coverage of routes that are generated by the heuristics towards the revealed routes. Results: We observed that when the heuristics did not provide overlapped routes, although giving higher network coverage, they introduced a higher number of links not belonging to any observed route. In general, this may cause significant network loading errors. Therefore, the quality of a method for choice set generation should be measured as a function of the trade-off amongst network coverage and network loading bias due to excessive cardinality of the generated choice-sets. Conclusion: We found the randomization method, which is also less computational demanding, provided the best trade-off amongst network coverage and network loading bias

Highlights

Route choice models represent the core of the standard traffic assignment procedures
We observed that when the heuristics did not provide overlapped routes, giving higher network coverage, they introduced a higher number of links not belonging to any observed route
The quality of a method for choice set generation should be measured as a function of the trade-off amongst network coverage and network loading bias due to excessive cardinality of the generated choice-sets

Summary

Introduction

Route choice models represent the core of the standard traffic assignment procedures. The first one, namely the stochastic approach, aims at simulating the probability that an alternative belongs to the choice set This could be done through one of the models proposed in the discrete choice theory for the choice set generation, either following the explicit approach [18 - 21], or the implicit approach, e.g the Implicit Availability Perception Logit IAP Logit [22]. Only the latter approach has been applied in the route choice context and, to the author’s knowledge, only one study [23] tried to estimate the IAP Logit. Generally based on shortest path algorithm repetition, give as output choice sets that are very large, lading to questions about their behavioural consistency

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Results

Conclusion