A PROPOSED DEFINITION OF TRAFFIC FLOW IN CONTINUOUS TRANSPORTATION MODELS

The paper deals with the problem of how to define traffic flow in a continuous transportation model. A hydrodynamic analogy with continuously distributed sources and sinks, where a continuum of vector fields represents the communication system, is used. Traffic is defined as an integral of the moduli of all these vector fields. The definition is seen to provide for conservation of traffic. The measure is compared to those obtained by counting "cordon crossings". It is seen that a measure obtained in this way agrees with the one proposed if the cordon crossings are weighted by the reciprocals of the cosines of the incidence angle. /TRRL/

• Corporate Authors:

  Pion Limited

  207 Brondesburg Park
  London NW2 5JN,   England 
• Authors:
  • Puu, T
• Publication Date: 1977

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: p. 559-567
• Serial:
  • Environment and Planning
  • Volume: 9
  • Issue Number: 5
  • Publisher: Pion Limited

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Communications; Continuous structures; Dynamics; Hydrodynamics; Mathematical models; Theory; Traffic flow; Transportation; Vector analysis
• Uncontrolled Terms: Transportation models
• Old TRIS Terms: Vectors
• ITRD Terms: 9006: Continuous; 5473: Dynamics; 6473: Mathematical model; 1054: Network (traffic); 9078: Theory; 671: Traffic flow
• Subject Areas: Hydraulics and Hydrology; Operations and Traffic Management; Transportation (General); I71: Traffic Theory;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00163831
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Transport and Road Research Laboratory (TRRL)
• Report/Paper Numbers: Analytic
• Files: ITRD, TRIS
• Created Date: Dec 27 1977 12:00AM