A modeling framework for large-scale traffic networks

加拿大交通部在其上一份关于计划和优先事项的报告中指出，为了维持加拿大对生产力提高和整体经济增长的需求，需要更好的多式联运整合和一致的交通基础设施设计和修复。加拿大运输部最近发布的一项研究调查了加拿大城市道路拥堵的成本，结果显示，加拿大9个大都市地区每年的拥堵总成本在20亿至34亿之间（以2002年的美元计算）。准确可靠的交通建模工具的可用性影响着交通管理当局在解决国家和地区道路基础设施的安全、保障和有效利用方面的有效性。目前，最先进的大规模交通网络建模工具，尽管最近在这一领域有了实质性的发展，但在交通网络建模的简单性、多功能性、效率、全面性和灵活性之间取得了平衡。提出的研究计划的长期目标是开发一个综合的建模框架，集成各种交通建模工具。该框架将包括一系列专门用于各种交通设施（高速公路、主干道、交叉路口等）交通分析的拟议理论模型。此外，将开发一个全面的软件包，以便以模块化的方法集成所建议的模型。这一特点将促进未来的发展超出了提议的研究计划的第一个五年期限的范围，如专门的交通模拟器，地理信息系统接口，存储库数据库，分析模拟器等。这项研究计划的主要好处是双重的。首先，该项目将为交通专业人士社区、从业者和研究人员提供强有力的综合支持，服务于一系列目的。其次，本研究也将为交通工程专业学生在应用与基础研究两个层面的教育活动提供支持。

The Canadian Transport Ministry identified in its last Report on Plans and Priorities the need for a better inter-modal integration and consistent transportation infrastructure design and rehabilitation in order to sustain Canada's needs for productivity gains and overall economic growth.  The release of a recent study performed for Transport Canada, that investigated the cost of roadway urban congestion in Canada, shows that for nine metropolitan areas of the country the total annual congestion costs ranges between 2.0 and 3.4 billion (in 2002 dollars).  The availability of accurate and reliable traffic modeling tools impacts the effectiveness of traffic management authorities in addressing safety, security, and efficient utilization of national and regional roadways infrastructure.  Currently, the state-of-the-art of large-scale traffic network modeling tools, in spite of recent substantial developments in this area, have mix success in striking the balance between the simplicity, versatility, efficiency, comprehensiveness, and flexibility of modeling the transportation networks.  The long term goal of the proposed research program is to develop a comprehensive modeling framework that integrates various traffic modeling tools.  This framework will encompass a collection of proposed theoretical models specialized in traffic analysis of various transportation facilities (expressways, arterials, intersections, etc.).  In addition, a comprehensive software package will be developed in order to integrate the proposed models in a modular approach.  This feature will facilitate future developments beyond the scope the first five-year term of the proposed research program, such as specialized traffic simulators, GIS interfaces, repository databases, analysis emulators, etc.  The major benefit of this research program is two-fold.  First, this program will provide transportation professionals communities, practitioners and researchers, a robust and integrated support that serves an array of purposes.  Second, this research will also provide support in educational activities of traffic engineering students at both levels, applied and basic-research.