Travel demand-based assignment model for multimodal and multiuser transportation system

Abstract

In this paper, the structural characteristic of urban multimodal transport system is fully analyzed and then a two-tier network structure is proposed to describe such a system, in which the first-tier network is used to depict the traveller's mode choice behaviour and the second-tier network is used to depict the vehicle routing when a certain mode has been selected. Subsequently, the generalized travel cost is formulated considering the properties of both traveller and transport mode. A new link impedance function is proposed, in which the interferences between different vehicle flows are taken into account. Simultaneously, the bi-equilibrium patterns for multimodal transport network are proposed by extending Wardrop principle. Correspondingly, a bi-level programming model is then presented to describe the bi-equilibrium based assignment for multi-class multimodal transport network. The solution algorithm is also given. Finally, a numerical example is provided to illustrate the model and algorithm. © 2012 Bingfeng Si et al.