Modeling stochastic perception error in the mean-excess traffic equilibrium model

Anthony Chen, Zhong Zhou, Hing Keung William Lam

Research output: Journal article publicationJournal articleAcademic researchpeer-review

78 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In this paper, we extend the α-reliable mean-excess traffic equilibrium (METE) model of Chen and Zhou (Transportation Research Part B 44(4), 2010, 493-513) by explicitly modeling the stochastic perception errors within the travelers' route choice decision processes. In the METE model, each traveler not only considers a travel time budget for ensuring on-time arrival at a confidence level α, but also accounts for the impact of encountering worse travel times in the (1 - α) quantile of the distribution tail. Furthermore, due to the imperfect knowledge of the travel time variability particularly in congested networks without advanced traveler information systems, the travelers' route choice decisions are based on the perceived travel time distribution rather than the actual travel time distribution. In order to compute the perceived mean-excess travel time, an approximation method based on moment analysis is developed. It involves using the conditional moment generation function to derive the perceived link travel time, the Cornish-Fisher Asymptotic Expansion to estimate the perceived travel time budget, and the Acerbi and Tasche Approximation to estimate the perceived mean-excess travel time. The proposed stochastic mean-excess traffic equilibrium (SMETE) model is formulated as a variational inequality (VI) problem, and solved by a route-based solution algorithm with the use of the modified alternating direction method. Numerical examples are also provided to illustrate the application of the proposed SMETE model and solution method.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1619-1640
Number of pages22
JournalTransportation Research Part B: Methodological
Volume45
Issue number10
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2011

Keywords

  • Mean-excess travel time
  • Perception error
  • Stochastic user equilibrium
  • Travel time budget
  • Travel time reliability
  • Variational inequality

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Civil and Structural Engineering
  • Transportation

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