Large-Scale Dynamic Traffic Assignment: Practical Lessons from an Application in Sydney, Australia

Abstract

Traditional static traffic assignment models no longer meet the strategic planning needs of most major metropolitan areas, especially in regard to evaluating major infrastructure projects. One promising possibility is dynamic traffic assignment (DTA), which has been receiving greater attention in the research community for the last ten years. This work describes the ongoing experience of building the first large-scale DTA model in Australia. We divide our experiences into categories regarding data, implementation, and visualization, and we discuss the challenges faced as well as our methods for overcoming those challenges. Finally, we discuss initial model results and the calibration process. In the future, the DTA model described here could aid in evaluating important policy decisions and infrastructural development in the context of the macro/meso-scale network operation. This project serves as a proof of concept for the Australia region and may provide valuable insight to other practitioners interested in emerging areas of transport planning and traffic modeling.