AN EFFICIENT APPROACH TO SOLVING THE ROAD NETWORK EQUILIBRIUM TRAFFIC ASSIGNMENT PROBLEM. IN: THE AUTOMOBILE

This paper presents a solution technique that requires only the solution of a sequence of shortest route problems, such as computing time for the one dimensional searches being insignificant. The computing time for finding an approximate solution to the equilibrium problem was less than that required by the simplex method by orders of magnitude even on a fairly small network. For larger problems the savings would be even greater, since for multi-commodity network problems the number of constraints grows as the square of the conservation of flow and non-negativity constraints used explicitly in this technique. Preliminary computational results indicate that the number of shortest route subproblems for a network equilibrium problem with several hundred nodes will not be excessive; thus the solution approach presented appears very promising for large network equilibrium problems.