An integrated approach to modeling vehicular movement networks

Abstract

Conventional traffic models are cost intensive, and they are rarely constructed to represent the finest scale structure of the street network. On the other hand, the axial model of space syntax, an alternative approach to trip-assignment, is considerably less cost intensive, but its predictions become less deterministic while dealing with the route-choice problems typically encountered in grid-like urban structures. This paper develops an overview of a dissertation work showing how these two approaches complement each other and then integrating them into a robust trip-assignment tool – unit-segment model – that is expected to guide planners in justifying their decisions with databased evidence while designing transportation policies for urban infrastructure developments. The overview, however, results in suggesting that, in order to apply the traffic predictions of a unitsegment analysis in practice, further development of the analysis model is necessary dealing with the voluminous effect of flows, the interrelationship of land use, movement, and configuration, and the effect of network boundary consideration.