DAY-TO-DAY EVOLUTION OF NETWORK FLOWS UNDER REAL-TIME INFORMATION ANDREACTIVE SIGNAL CONTROL

A day-to-day dynamic framework, in which the DYnamic Network Assignmen t Simulation Model for Advanced Road Telematics (DYNASMART) simulation -assignment model is applied to evaluate the performance of traffic ne tworks, is developed to study network dynamics under real-time informa tion and responsive signal control systems. The focus in this paper is primarily on commuter trips from home to work in a general network. T wo levels of tripmaker decision-making processes are incorporated: (1) day-to-day dynamics and (2) real-time dynamics. Day-to-day dynamics c onsider the choices of departure time and route according to indiffere nce bands of tolerable 'schedule delay', defined as the difference bet ween the user's actual and preferred arrival times, and are thus gover ned by tripmakers' daily]earning processes. Real-time dynamics conside r en-route switching decisions in response to real-time information on prevailing traffic conditions. The resulting Bows could be used in up dating the supplied real-time information as well as the traffic contr ol parameters. Two types of traffic control responsiveness are evaluat ed: (1) daily adjustment of signal timing parameters to reflect the pr eceding day's traffic patterns; and (2) real-time traffic-responsive s ignal control driven by prevailing flow patterns. The framework is ill ustrated through numerical experiments to investigate the day-to-day e volution of network flows under real-time information and responsive s ignal control, and assess the effectiveness of such information in a p roper dynamic perspective. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd.