This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Carey, M. Articles by McCartney, M. Search for Related Content

A Whole-Link Travel-Time Model with Desirable Properties

Faculty of Business and Management, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, BT37 0QB
Faculty of Business and Management, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, BT37 0QB
Faculty of Informatics, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, BT37 0QB

In network models for dynamic traffic assignment the link travel times are often described by "whole-link" models. In particular, they have been expressed as a function of the number of vehicles currently on the link. Such whole-link models are useful approximations and make the network model tractable when flows and travel times are varying over time. Here we propose an alternative whole-link model to approximate travel times. For a vehicle entering a link at time t, we let the link travel time be a function of a weighted average of the inflow rate at the time it enters and the outflow rate at the time it exits. We show that this model ensures first-in-first-out and has other desirable properties. We indicate computational methods for solving the model, apply it to various patterns of inflows, and compare the numerical results with two alternative whole–link models.

History: Received: July 2000; revised: June 2001; accepted: November 2001.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				G. Perakis and G. Roels An Analytical Model for Traffic Delays and the Dynamic User Equilibrium Problem Operations Research, November 1, 2006; 54(6): 1151 - 1171. [Abstract] [PDF]