AN INVESTIGATION OF MACROSCOPIC MODELS OF URBAN TRAFFIC

A model of urban automobile traffic which does not rely on a link-by-link network description would be useful in analyzing impacts of policies intended to improve various measures of urban traffic efficiency. Here a steady-state macroscopic traffic flow model is extended to accommodate heterogeneous road types. A comparison to an equilibrium traffic assignment on a test network specifies errors due to spatial aggregation in the macroscopic model. Potential errors due to the assumption of steady state are indicated and a time-dependent macroscopic model is developed to study road system response to time-varying demand. /Author/

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Presented at the TIMS/ORSA Joint National Meeting, San Francisco, California, May 9-11, 1977.
• Corporate Authors:

  General Motors Corporation

  Research and Development Center, 30500 Mound Road
  Warren, MI  United States  48090
• Authors:
  • Carnahan, J V
  • Tobin, R L
• Publication Date: 1977-4-28

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 32 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Equilibrium (Mechanics); Errors; Steady state; Time dependence; Traffic assignment; Traffic flow; Traffic simulation; Urban transportation
• Uncontrolled Terms: Macroscale
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Public Transportation;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00178330
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: GMR-2420
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 29 1981 12:00AM