System optimal dynamic traffic assignment: Properties and solution procedures in the case of a many-to-one network

Thanks to its high dimensionality and a usually non-convex constraint set, system optimal dynamic traffic assignment remains one of the most challenging problems in transportation research. This paper identifies two fundamental properties of the problem and uses them to design an efficient solution procedure. The authors first show that the non-convexity of the problem can be circumvented by first solving a relaxed problem and then applying a traffic holding elimination procedure to obtain the solution(s) of the original problem. To efficiently solve the relaxed problem, the authors explore the relationship between the relaxed problems based on different traffic flow models (PQ, SQ, CTM) and a minimal cost flow (MCF) problem for a special space-expansion network. It is shown that all the four problem formulations produce the same minimal system cost and share one common solution which does not involve inside queues in the network. Efficient solution algorithms such as the network simplex method can be applied to solve the MCF problem and identify such an optimal traffic pattern. Numerical examples are also presented to demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed solution procedure.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trb.2014.02.002
• Record URL:
  http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191261514000228
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/01912615
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Abstract reprinted with permission of Elsevier.
• Authors:
  • Shen, Wei
  • Zhang, H M
• Publication Date: 2014-7

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: pp 1-17
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Part B: Methodological
  • Volume: 65
  • Issue Number: 0
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 0191-2615
  • Serial URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/01912615

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Dynamic traffic assignment; Optimization; Traffic flow; Traffic models
• Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; I71: Traffic Theory;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01530763
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 24 2014 2:37PM