Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference:	GR/R70101/02
Title:	Capturing Time-Varying Link Flows and Their Properties in Road Traffic Network Modelling
Principal Investigator:	Carey, Professor M
Other Investigators:
Researcher Co-Investigators:
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Department:	Sch of Education
Organisation:	Queen's University of Belfast
Scheme:	Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts:	01 September 2003	Ends:	31 March 2005	Value (£):	58,128
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:	Transport Ops & Management
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:	Transport Systems and Vehicles
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Summary on Grant Application Form
Traffic congestion is an ever-increasing problem, with high social and economic costs, and predicting, managing or controlling it requires appropriate accurate models, in particular, models of traffic flows varying over time on congested road networks (referred to as dynamic traffic assignment, or DTA). Several different approaches to this have been adopted internationally. But even when these are applied to the same simple scenario (e.g. a within-day model with no learning behaviour, tolls, variable controls, etc) they produce different results, since each type of DTA models tends to have different link-flow model(s) embedded within it. Also, the present versions of some link-flow models in use in DTA have serious deficiencies or unexamined or not well understood properties. In view of this, we propose to investigate and compare the properties and behaviour of link flow models used in DTA, and how these affect the relative performance of DTA models. We will do this in several ways, both theoretically and numerically, and will also investigate swapping link flow models between DTA models, where this is possible, to develop improved models. The most exciting aspect of the research is that our investigations to-date indicate that if various seemingly quite different approaches to link flow modelling are refined/improved (particularly with appropriate discretisations), then they converge to give similar results, thus promoting consistency, comparability and transferrability between approaches. To undertake this, we request support for one research assistant for three years, plus necessary travel and computing equipment.
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