Model Step #4…
Traffic Assignment
(Route Choice))
Traffic Assignment
The fourth and the final step of the travel demand
forecasting process is Traffic Assignment.
The trip matrices (O-D) developed during generation,
distribution, and mode choice phases are used as
inputs for this step.
The outputs are the traffic volumes on the street
network of the study area.
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Traffic Assignment
Traffic Assignment to
Network
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Traffic Assignment
Traffic Assignment is the procedure by which the
planner predicts the paths the trips will use.
For example, if a trip goes from a residential area to
the university area, the model predicts the specific
streets or transit routes to be used to complete that
trip.
Traffic assignment process begins by constructing a
map representing the vehicle and transit networks in
the study area, because the model assigns traffic on
these networks.
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Base Map of a City Traffic Assignment Network
Map for the same City
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Traffic Assignment
There are mainly two types of traffic assignment
procedures
All-or-Nothing assignment, and
Capacity Restrained assignment
Both of these assignment procedures consist of two
steps:
Determination of the minimum path
Assign/load trips onto the minimum path.
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Traffic Assignment
Determination of Minimum Path:
It is assumed that the travelers want to use the
minimum impedance route between two
points.
Impedance can be time, distance, cost, etc.
The basic rule is that the “users choose the route
that minimizes their own travel time”.
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Traffic Assignment
Determination of Minimum Path (cont..):
Fig (a) shows a simple street network. The values within the
parentheses are the travel times on different links (roadway
sections).
Figure (b) shows the minimum paths from Node (intersection)
1. This type of diagram is also called “minimum tree” or
“skim tree”.
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Traffic Assignment
Assign/Load Trips onto the Minimum Path.
Person Trips vs. Vehicle Trips
Trip generation step calculates total person
trips
Trip assignment deals with volume not person
trips
Need to adjust person trips to reflect vehicle
trips
Understand units during trip generation phase
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Traffic Assignment
Assign/Load Trips onto the Minimum Path.
Person Trips vs. Vehicle Trips
Usually adjusted by average auto occupancy (average
number of persons in a car).
Example:
If:
average auto occupancy = 1.2
number of person trips from zone 1 = 550
So:
Vehicle trips = 550 person trips/1.2 persons per vehicle =
458.33 vehicle trips
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Traffic Assignment
Assign/Load Trips onto the Minimum Path.
Time of Day Patterns
Trip generation usually based on 24-hour period
LOS calculations usually based on hourly time
period
Hour, particularly peak, is often of more interest
than daily
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Traffic Assignment
Assign/Load Trips onto the Minimum Path.
Time of Day Patterns
Common time periods
Morning peak
Afternoon peak
Off-peak
Calculation of trips by time of day
Use of factors (e.g., morning peak may be 11% of daily
traffic)
Estimate trip generation by hour
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Traffic Assignment
All-or-Nothing Assignment
All-or-Nothing assignment technique allocates
the entire volume interchanging between pairs of
zones to the minimum path calculated on the
basis of free-flow link impedances (usually travel
times).
After all interchange volumes are assigned, the
flow on a particular link is computed by summing
all interzonal flows that happens to include that
link on their minimum paths.
Let’s discuss the following EXAMPLE.
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All-or- Nothing Traffic Assignment
21/2011 14
Traffic Assignment
Capacity-Restrained Assignment
We know that as flow increases toward capacity, the
average stream speed decreases from the free-flow
speed to the speed at capacity.
In all-or-nothing assignment, the interzonal flows are
assigned to the minimum paths computed on the basis of
free-flow link impedances (usually travel times).
But if the link flows were at the levels dictated by the
assignment (consider links 4-3, 3-4, 3-2, 4-1 of the
previous example), the link speeds would be lower and
the link travel times would be higher than those
corresponding to free-flow conditions.
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Traffic Assignment
Capacity-Restrained Assignment
As a result, the minimum paths computed prior
to trip assignment may not be the minimum
paths after the trips are assigned.
In capacity-restrained assignment technique, the
interzonal trips are assigned to the minimum
paths in increments and link travel times are
updated before each incremental loading of trips
onto the network.
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Traffic Assignment
Capacity-Restrained Assignment
The travel time, TQ on a particular link at a traffic
flow, Q can be calculated using the following
equation developed by the Bureau of Public Roads:
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Traffic Assignment
Capacity-Restrained Assignment
EXAMPLE
10 min
1 2
Zone 1 2 3 4
12
min 1 -- 300 500 200
5 min
6 min
2 200 -- 500 600
18
min
4 3 3 500 800 -- 400
9 min 4 400 500 600 --
Street Network Trip Matrix
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Traffic Assignment
Capacity-Restrained Assignment
Find the Minimum Path and assign 50% trips:
0 10
150
1 2
10 0
100
1 2
250 + 100
4 250 3 300
5 14
Node 1
Node 2
4 3
12 6
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Traffic Assignment
Capacity-Restrained Assignment
Find the Minimum Path and assign 50% trips:
14 6
1 2 12
5
1 Node 4 2
250
200
250
4 3
250 +
9 0
200
4 3
Node 3 300
0 9
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Traffic Assignment
Capacity-Restrained Assignment
Find the Link Volume after assigning 50% trips:
250
1 2
550
800 650
4 3
1000
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Traffic Assignment
Capacity-Restrained Assignment
Calculate the new link travel times:
Assuming capacity of each link to be 600 veh/hr,
t12 = 10[1+0.15(250/600)4] = 10.1 min.
Similarly, t13 = 18 min. t14 = 7.4 min.
t23 = 7.2 min. t24 = 13.3 min.
t34 = 19.4 min.
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Traffic Assignment
Capacity-Restrained Assignment
At the beginning of 2nd Iteration, the network with travel
times is as follows:
10.1 min
1 2
13.3 min
7.4 min
7.2 min
18 min
4 3
19.4 min
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Traffic Assignment
Capacity-Restrained Assignment
Find the Minimum Path and assign the remaining 50% trips:
0 10.1
150 + 250
1 2
100
4 3
Node 1
7.4 17.3
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Traffic Assignment
Capacity-Restrained Assignment
Find the Minimum Path and assign the remaining 50% trips:
10.1 0
100
1 2
300
4 3
Node 2
13.3 7.2
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Traffic Assignment
Capacity-Restrained Assignment
Find the Minimum Path and assign the remaining 50% trips:
17.3 7.2
250
1 2
Node 3
4 3
200
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Traffic Assignment
Capacity-Restrained Assignment
Find the Minimum Path and assign the remaining 50% trips:
7.4 13.3
1 Node 4 2
200
250
4 3
300
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Traffic Assignment
Capacity-Restrained Assignment
Find the Link Volume after assigning 100% trips:
250 + 750 = 1000
1 2
1100
800 + 300 =
650 + 1150 = 1800
550 + 550 = 1100
0 + 0 =0
4 3
1000 + 500 = 1500
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Traffic Assignment
Capacity-Restrained Assignment
This example problem assigned 50% traffic in one increment.
This was done only to minimize the hand calculation efforts and
only to show how the capacity restrained method works.
In reality,
the total assignment is done in 4 or 5 increments (20% to
25% trips at a time), and
The street network consists of thousands of links and
hundreds of nodes.
We can easily imagine the massive computing efforts required
to solve real-world transport modeling problems.
Consequently, the calculations are never performed with hands
and sophisticated transport modeling software are available to
perform all the necessary calculations.
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