Are We Really Solving the Dynamic Traffic Equilibrium Problem with a Departure Time Choice?

Ren-Yong Guo (), Hai Yang and Hai-Jun Huang ()
Additional contact information
Ren-Yong Guo: School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, 100191 Beijing, China; Key Laboratory of Complex System Analysis and Management Decision, Ministry of Education, 100191 Beijing, China

Transportation Science, 2018, vol. 52, issue 3, 603-620

Abstract: The dynamic traffic equilibrium problem has been a pivotal area of research in transportation for a few decades. The current state-of-the-art research in this area generally considers simultaneous departure time and route choice. In this paper, we theoretically prove that, in the simplest standard bottleneck model with a sufficient number of commuters, a dynamic user equilibrium (DUE) cannot be reached through a day-to-day evolution process of travelers’ departure rate—a central idea behind the iterative dynamic traffic equilibrium algorithms prevalent in the literature. We carry out our exploration with the proportional swap system and then extend our analysis to other typical dynamic equilibrium algorithms such as the network tatonnement process, the simplex gravity flow dynamics, the projected dynamical system, and the evolutionary traffic dynamics. Our investigation indicates that any algorithm analogous to the five categories of systems must be cautious in terms of convergence when it is applied to solve the DUE problem with a departure time choice, and hence puts forward a general question: Are we really solving the DUE problem with a departure time choice?

Keywords: dynamical system; dynamic user equilibrium (DUE); bottleneck model; algorithm; convergence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (15)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2017.0764 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ortrsc:v:52:y:2018:i:3:p:603-620

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Transportation Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().