Effects of traffic information provision strategies to mitigate traffic ongestion for within day and day-to-day dynamic environments

Abstract

Modeling interactions between congestion and travel decisions (mode, route, and departure time) has been one of the hottest research agenda since early initiation of the travel modeling practices. Recently, with the intelligent transport systems (ITS) components available on top of existing traditional transportation systems, information has become to play a more important role by affecting drivers choosing travel options and thereby modifying their travel behavior. Such being the case, the inclusion of effects caused by traffic information into the modeling framework has been expected both to reflect the actual ITS condition and to more effectively use the model to control and manage the congested traffic network. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to assess the effects of the pre-trip and en-route traffic information provision based on the dynamic models. For this, both day-to-day dynamic and within day traffic assignment models have been formulated and their solution algorithms have been proposed, respectively. To test the models applicability, some information providing strategies such as user optimal based, system optimal based, and mixed in-between strategy have been proposed to identify which scheme is best in attaining certain goal such as minimum traffic congestion. The implementation has been made using a sample road network and some discussions have also been made along with some future research agenda.