PECASE: Dynamic Phenomena in Transportation: A Research and Educational Perspective

这项拨款为发展一种理论提供资金，以理解交通平衡的本质，以及在各种系统中出现的各种相关现象，包括交通、通信和制造业。随着世界范围内城市和公路交通系统的日益拥堵以及智能车辆公路系统的发展，研究这些问题对交通规划具有重要意义。具体而言，本研究旨在建立对交通模式微观和宏观现象的更准确理解，提供见解并导致交通网络平衡的可测试理论。它将借鉴广泛的方法论，包括动力系统、统计学习、神经网络、数学优化和排队网络理论。为了推广研究项目的理念，还将开展各种教育活动。这项研究的结果将发展一种交通问题均衡的替代理论，该理论将能够对交通模式和交通网络中的延误做出经验可检验的预测。这项研究将解决各种各样的问题，如：什么是交通平衡的动态性质？延迟是如何动态变化的？在交通模式的形成过程中，信息对旅行者的作用是什么？我们如何控制向旅行者发布哪些信息，以诱导某些可取的行为？本研究的结果还将提供有关各种重要问题的见解，例如当分布式运输系统中本地组件的容量大幅减少并导致网络其余部分的拥堵（例如，交通事故）时出现的瓶颈现象。该工作也将有助于动态优化和平衡分析的发展。

This grant provides funding for the development of a theory for understanding the nature of traffic equilibria as well as various associated phenomena that arise in a variety of systems including transportation, communication and manufacturing. Studying these problems is important in transportation planning due to the growing congestion of urban and highway transportation systems worldwide as well as the development of Intelligent Vehicle Highway Systems. Specifically, this research aims to establish a more accurate understanding of microscopic and macroscopic phenomena of traffic patterns, provide insight and lead to a testable theory of equilibria in transportation networks. It will draw upon a broad collection of methodologies including dynamical systems, statistical learning, neural networks, mathematical optimization, and queuing network theory. To promote the philosophy of the research program a variety of educational activities will also be pursued.The results of this research will develop an alternative theory of equilibrium in transportation problems that will be able to make empirically testable predictions of traffic patterns and delays in the transportation network. This research will address a variety of questions such as: What is the dynamic nature of traffic equilibrium? How are delays dynamically changing? What is the role of information to travelers in the formation of traffic patterns? How can we control what information to release to travelers in order to induce certain desirable behavior? The results of this research will also provide insights concerning variousimportant issues such as bottleneck phenomena that arise when capacity of a local component in a distributed transportation system decreases substantially and causes congestion in the rest of the network (for example, a traffic accident). The work will also contribute to the development of dynamic optimization and equilibrium analysis.