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Comparison of two transportation network equilibrium modeling approaches

Journal Article · · Journal of Transportation Engineering
Existing methodologies for predicting traffic flows on transportation networks involve a sequential process, often with four stages: trip generation, trip distribution, modal split, and traffic assignment. Although the sequential approach has been applied to hundreds of transportation studies throughout the world for the last four decades, and is still being used in practice today, it has an inherent weakness. That is, its predictions need not be internally consistent. This deficiency has motivated attempts to predict all four steps simultaneously. The objective of this paper is to compare the simultaneous approach, using a Simultaneous Transportation Equilibrium Model (STEM) and the conventional sequential approach, using the Texas Demand Model developed and implemented by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). This was achieved by applying STEM to the urban transportation network of Tyler, Tex., and then comparing the accuracy of the resulting traffic network flows with the official TxDOT estimates. The application results showed that predictions of STEM were consistently better than those of the TxDOT by an average improvement of 25%. These results are certainly encouraging in terms of future application of STEM methodology to other real-world large-scale transportation networks.
Research Organization:
Arab Academy for Science and Technology and Maritime Transport, Alexandria (EG)
OSTI ID:
20014675
Journal Information:
Journal of Transportation Engineering, Journal Name: Journal of Transportation Engineering Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 126; ISSN JTPEDI; ISSN 0733-947X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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