Variable Toll Pricing and Heterogeneous Users: Model and Solution Algorithm for Bicriterion Dynamic Traffic Assignment Problem

Abstract

A dynamic traffic assignment model and its solution algorithm for the bicriterion dynamic user equilibrium (BDUE) problem that allows for heterogeneous users with different value-of-time (VOT) preferences are presented. Assuming the VOT as a continuously distributed random variable across the population of trips, the BDUE problem is formulated as a system of infinite-dimensional variational inequalities (VIs). Rather than solving the VI formulation directly, this study employs a generalized Frank-Wolfe algorithm to find the BDUE flow pattern. A bicriterion time-dependent least-cost path algorithm is applied to generate the extreme efficient path set, and the corresponding breakpoints naturally define the multiple user classes and thereby generate the descent direction for a multiclass dynamic network loading. A traffic simulator is used to describe the traffic flow propagation and the spatial and temporal interactions. To circumvent the difficulty of storing the memory-intensive path set and routing polic...