NETWORK INTERACTION - A REVIEW OF EXISTING MODELLING TECHNIQUES

This article briefly describes the main traffic assignment modelling methods used in the UK, and considers their relative merits with special reference to the treatment of network interaction. It draws on the findings of a recent project, commissioned by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR), to review the modelling of travel time for use in traffic and economic appraisal. The aggregate methods, which address junction interaction, include cyclic flow profiles (SATURN model), dynamic profiling (TRIPS model), and dynamic assignment (CONTRAM model). It is also possible to apply microsimulation models, which attempt to simulate the behaviour of each vehicle as it moves through a road network. They split the vehicle travel process into the following modules: (1) defining vehicle and driver behaviour characteristics; (2) vehicle following; and (3) lane changing. Within these modules, separate relationships govern acceleration, overtaking, driver reactions, etc. The main limitations of aggregate methods, compared with microsimulation, relate to their ability to represent the effects of interactions between adjacent junctions, including effects of arrival patterns, downstream effects of bottlenecks, and blocking-back, whose handling is one of the weakest features of aggregate methods.

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• Corporate Authors:

  PRINTERHALL LIMITED

  32 VAUXHALL BRIDGE ROAD
  LONDON,   United Kingdom  SW1V 2SS
• Authors:
  • WILLOUGHBY, P
  • EMMERSON, P
• Publication Date: 1999-2

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: p. 81-2
• Serial:
  • Traffic Engineering & Control
  • Volume: 40
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: Hemming Group, Limited
  • ISSN: 0041-0683
  • Serial URL: http://www.tecmagazine.com/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Behavior; Drivers; Economics; Evaluation and assessment; Federal government; Intersections; Mathematical models; Methodology; Networks; Origin and destination; Research projects; Roads; Traffic; Traffic control; Travel time; Trip length; Vehicles
• Uncontrolled Terms: Road networks
• Geographic Terms: United Kingdom
• ITRD Terms: 9001: Behaviour; 1772: Driver; 255: Economics; 9020: Evaluation (assessment); 183: Government (national); 697: Journey time; 455: Junction; 6473: Mathematical model; 9102: Method; 687: Origin destination traffic; 8557: Research project; 1053: Road network; 755: Traffic; 654: Traffic control; 8119: United Kingdom; 1255: Vehicle
• Subject Areas: Economics; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Research; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00765689
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport Research Laboratory
• Files: ITRD, ATRI
• Created Date: Jul 1 1999 12:00AM