An Efficient Model for Urban Traffic Network Control

In order to control the urban traffic network through optimization methods, it is necessary to establish a proper urban traffic network model. This model should be both accurate in describing the network traffic and simple to compute. In this paper, an existing link model is at first improved to describe the main traffic dynamic behaviors more accurately. Then, a general urban traffic network topology is proposed. By modeling the network elements, a macroscopic model for urban traffic networks can be established. The model is compared with the microscopic traffic model CORSIM. It shows that this model well balances the accuracy and simpleness, and is thus suitable to real-time control.