Network user equilibrium model for scheduling daily activity travel patterns in congested networks

Travel demands are derived from the needs and the desires for participating in various activities, such as work, eating, and shopping. An understanding of the interaction between people's activity and travel choice behavior can serve as a base for long-term transport service planning and policy evaluation purposes. This paper proposes an activity-based network user equilibrium model for dealing with daily activity travel pattern (DATP) scheduling problems in congested networks, in which interdependency between people's activity and travel choices is comprehensively investigated. A diagonalization solution algorithm is developed to solve the scheduling problems. A remarkable merit of the developed solution algorithm is that it enables an automatic generation of individuals' DATPs, implying obviation of an explicit enumeration of those patterns that often were required in many previous related studies. A numerical example is provided to illustrate the application of the proposed model and solution algorithm.