Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Urban Transportation Systems Planning

Traffic Assignment

Department of Civil Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
General
• Traffic Assignment is the process of allocating
given set of trip interchanges to the specified
transportation system or routes
Traffic assignment requires a complete description
of proposed or existing transportation system and
a matrix of inter zonal trip movements

Estimate the routes used between each origin-

destination (O-D) pair
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• Different types of traffic assignment techniques

include:
All-or-nothing assignment
Incremental assignment
Capacity restraint assignment
Stochastic assignment
Stochastic user equilibrium assignment
System optimum assignment
Dynamic assignment, etc.
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Link Cost Function

• As the flow increases towards the capacity of the
stream, the average stream speed reduces from
the free flow speed to the speed corresponding to
the maximum flow

• The minimum path computed

prior to the trip assignment
will not be the minimum after
the trips are assigned
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Network Properties and Algorithms

• It is useful to understand some of the network
properties like network connectivity, minimum
spanning tree, shortest path, etc.
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Minimum Spanning Tree
• Spanning Tree: A tree with required minimum
number of links to ensure connectivity of the
network i.e. (n-1) links to connect ‘n’ nodes
• Minimum spanning tree: A spanning tree with
minimum total cost or length
• In many system, such as highways, computer
network, telephone lines, television cables, etc, we
need to identify the minimum spanning tree
• Example: Minimum road network which needs to
be developed and maintained throughout the year
to ensure connectivity of all nodes
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
4
b d
1 2

a 3 5 7 f

4 1
c e
6
• So many ways, 5 links can be selected to ensure
connectivity of all the 6 nodes
• But, for the minimum spanning tree (shown by
yellow lines), the total cost is minimum
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• Two important features of minimum spanning

tree:
Possible multiplicity: There may be several
minimum spanning trees of the same weight
having minimum no. of edges; in particular, if
all weights are the same, every spanning tree is
minimum
Uniqueness: If each edge has a distinct weight
then there will only be one, unique minimum
spanning tree
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Kruskal's Algorithm
• This is a greedy algorithm
• Take a graph with 'n' vertices
• Keep adding the shortest (least cost) edge, while
avoiding the creation of cycles
• until (n - 1) edges have been added
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Example

Step 1
4
b d
1 2

a 3 5 7 f

4 1
c e
6
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Step 2
4
b d
1 2

a 3 5 7 f

4 1
c e
6
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Step 3
4
b d
1 2

a 3 5 7 f

4 1
c e
6
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Step 4
4
b d
1 2

a 3 5 7 f

4 1
c e
6
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Step 5

4
b d
1 2

a 3 5 7 f

4 1
c e
6
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Prim’s Algorithm
• Start at any vertex in a graph (vertex A, for
example), and find the least cost vertex (vertex B,
for example) connected to the start vertex.
• Now, from either 'A' or 'B', find the next least costly
vertex connection, without creating a cycle (vertex
C, for example).
• Now, from either 'A', 'B', or 'C', find the next least
costly vertex connection, without creating a cycle,
and so on
• Eventually, all the vertices will be connected,
without any cycles, and an MST will be the result
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Example

Step 1 4
b d
1 2

a 3 5 7 f

4 1
c e
6
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Step 2

4
b d
1 2

a 3 5 7 f

4 1
c e
6
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Step 3

4
b d
1 2

a 3 5 7 f

4 1
c e
6
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
Step 4

4
b d
1 2

a 3 5 7 f

4 1
c e
6
 Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur

Step 5

4
b d
1 2

a 3 5 7 f

4 1
c e
6
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Shortest path
• Finding a path between two vertices (or nodes)
such that the sum of the weights of its constituent
edges is minimized
• Formally, given a weighted graph (that is, a set V
of vertices, a set E of edges, and a real-valued
weight function f : E → R), and one element v of V,
find a path P from v to a v' of V so that
– Σf(p), p ϵ P, is minimal among all paths
connecting v to v'
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Dijkstra's algorithm
• It solves the single-pair, single-source, and
single-destination shortest path problems
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Algorithm
• Let's call the node we are starting as initial node
and from which Y be the distance to an other node
• Assign some initial distance values and try to
improve them step-by-step and assign to every
node a distance value; Steps are
Set it to zero for initial node and to infinity for
all other nodes and mark all nodes as unvisited
Set initial node as current
For current node, consider all its unvisited
neighbours and calculate their distance
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• For example, if current node (A) has distance of 6, and
an edge connecting it with another node (B) is 2, the
distance to B through A will be 6+2=8
• If this distance is less than the previously recorded
distance (infinity in the beginning, zero for the initial
node), overwrite the distance
• When we are done considering all neighbours of the
current node, mark it as visited
• A visited node will not be checked ever again; its
distance recorded now is final and minimal
• Set the unvisited node with the smallest distance (from
the initial node) as the next "current node" and
continue from step 3
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Example
9 5
6 6
2 11
3 4
14
9
10 15
1
7 2

Find out shortest path in this network using

Dijkstra's algorithm
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Solution
• Step 1: set node 1 at zero and others at infinitive
• Step 2: node 1 is now current node
• Step 3: from node 1 distances of nodes 2, 3, 6 are
7, 9, 14 respectively and minimum is 7, so
14 9 5 6
6
2 9 11
3 4
14
9
10 15
0
1 7
7 2
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• Now node 2 become the current node from which
the distance of node 3 is (7+10)= 17>9 and node 4
is (7+15)= 22
• The distance of node 3 from node 2 is more than
the distance from node 1, so

14 9 5 6
6 22
2 (7+10)=17>9
11
3 4
14
9
10 15
0
1 7
7 2
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• Now node 3 become the current node from which
the distance of node 4 is (9+11)= 20<22 and node
6 is (9+2)= 11<14
• The distance of node 6 from node 1 is more than
the distance from node 3, so
(9+2)=11<14
9 5 6
6
(9+11)=20<22
2 9
11
3 4
14
9
10 15
0
1 7
7 2
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• Now node 6 become the current node from which
the distance of node 5 is (11+9)= 20
• And distance from node 5 to node 4 is (20+6)= 26 >
20, so

(11+9)=20
11
9 5 6
6
20
2 9
11
3 4
14
9
10 15
0
1 7
7 2