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In a recent paper a traffic assignment model has been constructed in which the cost on a link may depend not only on its load, but also on the loads on other links of the network. In this paper it is shown that this model is also capable of handling the case of several classes of users in the same transportation network each of which has an individual cost function and, at the same time, contributes to its own and other classes' cost functions in an individual way. Typical applications arise not only in street networks where vehicles of different types share the same roads (e.g., trucks and passenger cars) but also in other types of transportation networks (e.g., telephone networks). An algorithm is constructed for finding the system-optimizing flow pattern for such a multiclass-user transportation network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The longitudinal vehicle control problem associated with any automated transportation scheme is discussed. The two fundamental aspects of the problem are the logical aspect and the control aspect. The logical aspect of the problem concerns the decision of where vehicles should be at a future time, based on present system conditions, so that the level of service delivered by the system is good. The control aspect is concerned with how to control vehicles to attain and maintain their desired positions while giving a comfortable ride, not taking too long, not exceeding car capabilities, and maintaining safety. Previous work dealing with both the logical and control aspects of the longitudinal vehicle control problem is briefly reviewed. One approach to handling the logical aspects of the merging problem in automated systems assumes that vehicles occupy positions on a guideway within hypothetical 'cells' that move at a constant velocity. This approach simplifies the logical aspect of the longitudinal control problem. The problem of controlling vehicles to attain and maintain an assigned cell on a guideway is modeled in the paper as a linear state regulator optimal control problem. The resulting vehicle control scheme requires less information feedback than alternative schemes, and exhibits good vehicle response characteristics. Alternative control strategies that lead to optimal control problems other than the linear state regulator are discussed, and the relative advantages of the scheme presented in the paper are pointed out. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A wide range of signal switching policies may be adopted for control of traffic flow between a pair of intersections. One of the most import,ant traffic situations is that in which rush-hour commuter traffic travels towards or away from a city center along radial roads. Under these circumstances opposing and tangential flow may be light. Earlier papers have shown that a modified form of the Dunne-Potts switching policy might be applied to pairs of intersections carrying commuter flow. Efficient and flexible operation of the system under a wide variety of flow conditions, and with the minimum of computer surveillance, was demonstrated. The present paper reports the results of further simulation experiments and discussed tentative solutions of some of the practical problems associated with the proposed scheme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a mathematical model for the behavior of right- turning (left-hand drive is the convention observed) vehicles at an uncontrolled intersection. The model is a development of the one proposed for this situation in a previous paper by the author. It relates to the intersection of a two-lane major road with a minor road at which vehicles on the major road have absolute priority. Completely random traffic is postulated on the major road, and congestion is caused by drivers of vehicles on the major road who wish to turn right and are unable to do so immediately because of oncoming traffic. It is not possible for following vehicles to filler to the left of a delayed vehicle. The delay distribution for vehicles in each lane of the major road is determined for the case of stochastically stationary behavior, and sonic numerical results for the mean and variance of this distribution are given. The gap acceptance mechanism used in this paper is similar to the one proposed by GAVER. Further references for this paper are discussed in the Introduction to the author's previous paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The general problem is that of locating a central facility in a network so as to minimize the sum of its distances from the sources of flow to it, each distance being appropriately weighted to reflect the associated flow volume and/or cost. In this paper, simple one-pass solution algorithms are given for two classes of topologically simple networks, namely those which are either acyclic or contain exactly one cycle. The first algorithm is based on a reduction procedure that may also yield useful simplification of problems involving general networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A method for estimating costs and benefits to commuters, over a period of time, is developed in this paper. The method will account for the variation of traffic volumes over the period of time considered. The cost structure of a transport mode is taken as a function of the volume of traffic on that mode. The distribution of traffic volumes is then used to measure the costs and benefits to the user and the state over a year. Commuters are divided into different social classes according to the value they place on the attributes of the different transport modes. Next the method is used to evaluate different road pricing schemes. Finally the road system is examined both as a public utility and as a public enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Before we can construct models for multilane traffic flow, we must be able to describe single-lane traffic. This paper considers some of these methods of description including the use of headway and counting distributions. Another method of describing point processes is by means of product densities. These are essentially joint probabilities of two or more vehicles passing a point at different specified times. Product densities have been used in many fields including particle physics, ecology, and road traffic. The idea of using product densities is simple and attractive, but they do have two major disadvantages: (i) except in simple cases, headway distributions are very difficult to derive from product densities, and (ii) product density estimates for different time lags are cor- related, so that tests of hypotheses are not easy to perform. An alternative to product densities is proposed. For want of a better name these are called termination rates. The termination rate after lag τ is the probability of a vehicle passing a point in a small interval of time, divided by the length of the small interval and conditional upon the last vehicle having passed a time τ previously. These are very similar to mortality rates for humans or scrap page rates for commodities with limited life-times. The interrelations between these statistics are quoted but not derived. Various sets of data are used to illustrate the less common statistics. Some analysis is given of a sample of data from the Congress (now Eisenhower) Expressway in Chicago. Variance to mean ratios are used to show that there is a strong correlation between lanes even though the autocorrelations of headways within lanes are very small. Bivariate termination rates have been estimated for each lane. Given a vehicle in one lane, it was found that the expected number of vehicles in a neighboring lane within 2 or 3 sec was enhanced by about 10-15 percent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Investigations of motorist delays at the intersection of a major and minor road have involved variations of one or the other of two merging strategies: (i) MILLER'S[8] model that assumes that a minor-road motorist makes consecutive decisions consistently, and (ii) that of WEISS AND MARADUDIN[7] that assumptions that a different, independent decision is made for each headway. In this paper we show that results for both models may be obtained easily, using the results of queuing theory, if certain reasonable assumptions are made. Simple expressions for the Laplace-Stieltjes transforms and means of the delays are derived in the case of independent major-road headways with a common, general distribution. For exponential headways, a numerical study shows the mean Miller delay to increase with the variation in the merge times, while the mean Weiss-Maradudin delay decreases. To illustrate the application of the expressions obtained, we investigate the reduction in the delay achieved by inserting a traffic island between two streams of major-road traffic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hillier has described a method of selecting offsets to minimize delay in certain networks controlled by fixed-time signals. In this paper an attempt is made to extend the method by relaxing somewhat the restriction on the form of the network. The problem is expressed in terms of the theory of graphs, and an iterative process is developed for finding a set of offsets that minimizes delay over the whole network. At each stage, the part of the network already covered is extended by adding one or more links, and for the method to be viable these links must be chosen so that a certain set of intersections remains small. A method of selection of links that minimizes this set of intersections at each stage is developed. The selection of links and calculation of offsets have been programmed in Fortran. Having found one delay-minimizing set of offsets, some others that give the same total delay can be found if they exist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]