Traffic Assignment

Urban Transportation Planning • Problem Definition & Assumptions

409-619B (Fall 2002)
Trip Assignment Modelling
Murtaza Haider
School of Urban Planning/
Dept. of Civil Engineering
McGill University
murtaza.haider@mcgill.ca
tel: 514.398.4079
http://transportation.regionomics.com
– Representing Congestion
– Treatment of Time
– Random Effects
– Wardrop’s Rules
• System Optimization
• User Equilibrium
– Assignment Procedures
• All-or-Nothing
• Capacity Restraint
• Deterministic User Equilibrium
– Shortest Path Algorithms
– TransCAD Assignment Routines

Route Assignments Assumptions

• Find the path (or paths) through the network which
trips from i to j are most likely to take.
• “Fixed costs” (no congestion) vs. “variable costs”
(congestion effects)
• Static vs. dynamic
• Deterministic vs. stochastic
• System optimization vs. user equilibrium

Fixed Cost Assumptions Congestion Effects

• It is reasonable to ignore congestion effects in • In most urban road networks, congestion effects are
certain cases, such as: significant (especially during peak-periods) and
– Most transit assignments must be accounted for
– Most inter-city cases • Generally we use a volume-delay curve which
– Rural areas predicts link travel time (t) as a function of link
– Small urban areas volume (v)
– Off-peak time periods, if volumes are low
• The volume-delay functions are simple
approximations to true link performance

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Volume-Delay Function Common VDF’s

Time
(min/km)
• VDF should be
– a continuous, differentiable function
t = S(v)
– should be non-decreasing and montone, increasing flow
should not decrease in travel time
t
– The function should not generate infinite travel time
when V > C
– Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) function is the most
v Flow commonly used function worldwide
(veh/h) Speed – GTA Model uses the so-called tangent function
• converges much more quickly
• more realistic results for over-saturated case

vmax (veh/h)

The BPR Function Tangent Function

t = (L/S)*[1 + α*(v/c)β]
t = link travel time (min)
L = link length (km)
S = link un-congested average speed (km/min, e.g. speed
limit)
t0 (free flow travel time) = L/S
v = link volume (veh/hr)
c = link capacity (veh/hr)
α = parameter = 1 if one-hr assignment
= 0.15 if 24-hr assignment
β = parameter = 4 for arterial road
= 6 for freeway
[1] • This function is identical to the BPR function for
values of (v/c) < 1.0 (under-saturated case).
• For (v/c) > 1.0 (over-saturated case) use a straight
line, with slope = BPR slope at (v/c) = 1:
t = (L/S)*[1 + α *(v/c)β] if (v/c) < 1 [2.1]
t = (L/S)*[(1+ α - α*β) + α*β(v/c)] if (v/c) > 1 [2.2]
for α =1, β =4, [2.2] becomes:
t = (L/S)*[4(v/c)-2]

Static & Dynamic Assignment Deterministic & Stochastic Assignment

• Static assignment procedures assign trips to all
links in the chosen path simultaneously; i.e., the
time taken to travel from link to link is ignored
• Dynamic assignment procedures assign trips to
each link in the chosen path sequentially, taking into
account the time taken to travel along each link
– Dynamic assignment is more realistic, but much more
complex & computationally intensive
• Deterministic Assignment: Assume that travel
times are known with certainty by trip-makers and
that they make perfectly optimal route choices
• Stochastic Assignment: Travel times are not
known with certainty by trip-makers, and/or they
are imperfect optimizers, and/or they include factors
other than travel time in their decision-making

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Stochastic Assignment Deterministic Assignment

• Stochastic assignment is used for some applications,
such as:
– some transit assignment algorithms
– moderately (but not heavily) congested networks
– highly abstracted (i.e., aggregated) networks
• Discrete choice route choice models (e.g., logit)
exist to do stochastic assignment, however :
– computationally burdensome
– need to take care in defining the “choice set” of feasible
routes
• Deterministic assignment methods are usually used
in most urban applications:
– Simpler, easier to use
– Computationally more efficient
– Deterministic assumptions are not bad in congested
networks (penalty for choosing non-optimal route is high)

Wardrop’s Rules System Optimization

• Wardrop [1952] is credited with first identifying the • Assign the O-D flows so that they generate a set of
two fundamental approaches to trip assignment: link flows, {Vl}, which minimize total travel time in
– System Optimization: Assign O-D flows to paths so as to the system; i.e.:
minimize the total (average) system travel time.
– User Equilibrium: Assign O-D flows so that no user of – MIN ∑l {Vl S (Vl )} [3]
the system can unilaterally change routes and improve Vl

his/her travel time thereby. • System optimization works for many freight
applications, however , it does not describe human
route choice well

User Equilibrium All-or-Nothing Assignment (AoN)

• Each trip-maker chooses his/her route through the
network which minimizes his/her individual travel
time
• Equilibrium is achieved when every trip-maker is
using the best route possible, given prevailing
congestion levels
• This is an equilibrium, since no user can switch
routes and improve his/her travel time, and so no
user will switch voluntarily
• If there are no congestion effects, then deterministic
user equilibrium implies that there will be a single
best path for each trip-maker, and that each trip-
maker will use that path and no other
– Simple
– Easy to understand
– Easy to compute
– Often used for transit assignment
• Obviously not applicable to congested road
networks

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All-or-Nothing Assignment Algorithm Capacity Restraint Approach

• Incorporating congestion into user equilibrium

Compute Link Travel Times calculations significantly adds to the complexity of
the problem
• Originally, planners used ad hoc “capacity restraint”
Find Minimum Time Paths methods to generate approximations to the user
For All O-D Pairs equilibrium solution
• These methods were, however, generally
unsatisfactory
Assign All Flow To
Minimum Time Paths

Deterministic User Equilibrium (DUE) DUE Example

• Note that two routes between the same O-D pair • Must determine link flows {V1,V2} such that:
will be used by trip-makers if the travel times on the – V1 + V2 = VAB [4]
two routes are the same – t1 = t2 = t* [5]
• Consider a single O-D pair (origin A, destination – where t* = equilibrium travel time from A ⇒ B
B), with two links (routes) connecting the origin to
destination (1 and 2):
1
A B
2
VAB = O-D flow A-B

VDF’s Link 1 and Link 2 Equilibrium Solution

t1 t2 t1 t2

t* t*

V1* V2*
V1 V2 Vab

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Equilbrium Solution, cont’d Equilbrium Solution, cont’d

• Let’s assume two route options with the travel costs • Equilibrium link volumes are such that the sum of
expressed in minutes: the areas under the volume-delay curves equals the
– t1 = 15 + 0.005V1 minimum value achievable; i.e.:
– t2 = 10 + 0.02V2 Vl
– Total flow, V = V1 + V2 – MIN ∑l {∫ S l ( x) dx} [6]
• Wardrop’s equilibrium Vl
0
– 15 + 0.005V1 = 10 + 0.02(V - V1) • Eqn [6] generalizes to any number of O-D pairs and
– V1 = 0.8V - 200 any number of links per path
• The above solution is meaningful only for non-
negative flows, i.e., V > 250 (200/0.8)
• At V = 250, V1 = 0.
• At V = 2000, V1 = 1400, V2 = 600

DUE Solution Algorithm DUE Solution Algorithm - ii

Find Initial Feasible Solution Do All-or-Nothing Assignment,

(All-or-Nothing) {Vl} A Yields New Link Flows, {V’l}

Compute Link Travel Times Combine the two sets of flows:

tl = S(V
S(Vl) B
V”l = λVl + (1- λ)V’l [7]
Choose λ which minimizes [6]
B
Compute Minimum Time A
Paths for all O-D Pairs
No
Stop V”l = Vl all l? Vl = V”l

Transit Assignment Network Analysis in TransCAD

• Transit network assignment usually is not a function • Network analysis models are used to solve many
of congestion types of transportation network problems:
• Procedures typically used: – Shortest path routines can be used to generate the
– all-or-nothing shortest, fastest, or least-costly route between any number
of origins and any number of destinations, with any
– stochastic (multi-path)
number of intermediate points.
• Must account for: – Network partitioning can be used to create service
– walk access/egress times districts based on accessibility, perform drive-time
– waiting times (function of headway) analysis, or evaluate possible facility locations. When
– transfers you perform network partitioning, you can also calculate
• feasible transfer points the network distance or travel time from specific
• transfer times locations.
– Traveling salesman models construct efficient tours that
visit any number of points on a network.

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Traffic Assignment Procedures in TransCAD
• Assignment models take as input a matrix of flows
that indicate the volume of traffic between origin
and destination pairs.
– The flows for each O-D pair are loaded on the network
based upon the travel time or impedance of the alternative
paths that could carry this traffic.
• Assignment Models available in TransCAD include:
– All-Or-Nothing Assignment (AON)
– STOCH Assignment
– Incremental Assignment
– Capacity Restraint
– User Equilibrium (UE)
– Stochastic User Equilibrium (SUE)
– System Optimum Assignment (SO)
Cold Starts
• One output option is to generate data on cold start
traffic. When this option is selected, TransCAD
keeps track of the location and volume of traffic that
is in the cold start mode
• This quantity is required for air quality impact
estimation
Network Travel Time Bands
Assignment Procedures in TransCAD - ii
• Options for the traffic assignment procedures:
– User control over link performance functions and
parameters
– Treatment of transfer and turning penalties
– Pre-loading of network links, and calculation of
additional output measures
– User controls are very conveniently set with system
defaults and the ability to code exceptions for specific
links and intersections
– Critical link analysis is another traffic assignment option
– TransCAD produces individual and cumulative
frequencies of different link volume ranges in both
absolute and percentage terms, and the same information
for volume-to-capacity ratios
Output of Traffic Assignment Procedure
Highway Assignment in TransCAD
• Traffic assignment procedures:
– Generalized-cost traffic assignment
– HOV assignment
– Multi-mode vehicle assignment
– Multiple user class traffic assignment,
– Combined trip distribution-assignment
– Assignment with volume-dependent turning delays and
signal optimization
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Highway Assignment in TransCAD - ii Transit Routes

• In addition, a multi-modal equilibrium traffic
assignment procedure that simultaneously assigns
cars, trucks, and buses to the road network
– Allows multiple user classes for cars (e.g. HOV users) as
well as different classes (e.g. sizes) of trucks
– Allows the option of using exact entrance to exit tolls by
vehicle class and differential values of time to be used in
calculating generalized cost
– Network exclusions keep each class of traffic restricted to
the links that it is permitted to use
– Some vehicles, such as fixed route buses, can be pre-
loaded on the multi-modal network.
– Among the reporting options is a breakdown of link
traffic by vehicle class and type
• TransCAD has special data structures for handling
transit routes in all their natural complexity
– Routes may be stored, displayed, edited, and analyzed
– Transit routes can be directly placed on the streets so that
interactions between autos and transit can be treated
explicitly
– Special visualization capabilities for transit to display and
label overlapping routes
– Interactive route editor to enter new routes and modify
existing ones

Transit Assignment Procedures Transit Assignment

• A generalized pathfinder that computes composite • Transit assignment models are used to estimate the
characteristics for overlapping transit routes number of passengers that utilize links in a transit
– This pathfinder gives a good estimate of the waiting time network as a function of transit level of service
that travelers would experience prior to boarding a transit – These models take as input a matrix of passenger flows
route between origins and destinations and a transit network,
• Transit assignment methods include: and produce link level and aggregate ridership statistics
– A stochastic user equilibrium method that deals with – Transit assignment procedures:
multiple service alternatives, vehicle capacity, and • Non-equilibrium methods
optionally with dwell time and user’s value of time. – All-Or-Nothing
– Optimal Strategies
• Equilibrium assignments
– UTPS Pathfinder
– Generalized Pathfinder
– User Equilibrium
– Stochastic User Equilibrium

Transit Assignment - ii Transit Route Network

• Equilibrium Assignment Methods take account of

the capacity of transit service and the effect of
ridership on
– crowding comfort
– travel time on the route
• These methods distribute the flow between a
particular origin and destination to multiple paths,
based on their relative attractiveness
• The transit assignment procedure produces a table
of ridership at every stop along each route in the
transit network
– Optional outputs include critical link analysis, boarding
and alighting counts, and aggregate ridership counts

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Transit Assignment Example Shortest Path Calculations

• All assignment procedures depend upon efficient

calculation of shortest paths through large networks
• Many algorithms exist to do this.
• Best one depends on size of the network and the
problem application (e.g., different procedures are
often used for road vs. transit assignments)

8
Shortest Path Algorithm Example
Papacostas & Prevedouras, 4th edition

Impedance Matrix
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
0 1 5
15 2 3
21 3 4
18 4 4 5
19 5 3
5 6 5 8 5 4
13 7 2 7 4 7
17 8 4 6
10 9 6 3 7
9 10 4 5 3 5
14 11 4 5 5 8 5
17 12 2 7 6
22 13 8 5 2
19 14 3 5 4

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Link Matrix

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
1 1 1
0 2
0 3
0 4
0 5
3 6 0 1 1 1
2 7 1 0 1 0
1 8 1 0
1 9 0 0 1
1 10 0 0 0 1
3 11 1 0 0 1 1
1 12 1 0 0
0 13 0 0 0
0 14 0 0 0
0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Shortest-path graph

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All-or-Nothing Assignment
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 To Flow
1 2100 2100 1 0
2 800
2 0
3 500
3 0 4 600
4 0 5 200
5 0
6 0 1300 200 600 2100
7 800 500 1300
8 500 500
9 200 200
10 600 600
11 600 600
12 200 200
13 0
14 0

Network Loadings

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 Incremental Assignment

• Compute travel times based on existing flows

• Assign an increment of the flow to the minimum
path
– Smaller the increment, the better it is
• Update the link travel times based on the existing
and assigned flow
• Repeat until all the flow for the O-D pair has been
assigned

Incremental Assignment Example

• We need to assign a volume of 524 trips on an O-D

pair connected by three routes: A, B, and C. The
free flow travel time, link capacity, and pre-existing
flow are provided. Assign the flow in four equal
increments.
• The VDF is presented below
 V  
4

t ' = t0 1 + 0.15  
  C  

1 2 3 4
Link Ex_Traffic C t0 t'a V_25% ta(Va) V_50% ta(Va) V_75% ta(Va) V_100% ta(Va)
A 550 1000 22 22.30 550 22.3 550 22.3 550 22.3 550 22.3
B 1440 1500 18 20.29 1571 21.2 1571 21.2 1702 22.5 1702 22.5
C 3700 4000 19 21.09 3700 21.1 3831 21.4 3831 21.4 3963 21.7

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Floyd’s Algorithm for Shortest Path

– Define matrix D as the impedance matrix

• If flow is permitted in a direction, we use the actual
link cost. If flow is not permitted, we will put infinity
or a very large number. For diagonal elements, we
will put 0.
– Define P as the connectivity matrix
– Algorithm coded in Matlab
[n,p]=size(D);
P=zeros(n,p);
for k = 1:n
for i = 1:n
for j= 1:n
if D(i,k)+D(k,j)<D(i,j)
D(i,j)=D(i,k)+D(k,j);
P(i,j)=k;
end
end
end
end
P
D

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