A maximum entropy-least squares estimator for elastic origin-destination trip matrix estimation

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Chi Xie - , University of Texas at Austin (Author)
  • Kara M. Kockelman - , University of Texas at Austin (Author)
  • S. Travis Waller - , University of Texas at Austin (Author)

Abstract

In transportation subnetwork-supernetwork analysis, it is well known that the origin-destination (O-D) flow table of a subnetwork is not only determined by trip generation and distribution, but also by traffic routing and diversion, due to the existence of internal-external, external-internal and external-external flows. This result indicates the variable nature of subnetwork O-D flows. This paper discusses an elastic O-D flow table estimation problem for subnetwork analysis. The underlying assumption is that each cell of the subnetwork O-D flow table contains an elastic demand function rather than a fixed demand rate and the demand function can capture all traffic diversion effect under various network changes. We propose a combined maximum entropy-least squares (ME-LS) estimator, by which O-D flows are distributed over the subnetwork so as to maximize the trip distribution entropy, while demand function parameters are estimated for achieving the least sum of squared estimation errors. While the estimator is powered by the classic convex combination algorithm, computational difficulties emerge within the algorithm implementation until we incorporate partial optimality conditions and a column generation procedure into the algorithmic framework. Numerical results from applying the combined estimator to a couple of subnetwork examples show that an elastic O-D flow table, when used as input for subnetwork flow evaluations, reflects network flow changes significantly better than its fixed counterpart.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)189-212
Number of pages24
JournalProcedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences
Volume17
Publication statusPublished - 2011
Peer-reviewedYes
Externally publishedYes

Conference

Title19th International Symposium on Transportation and Traffic Theory
Conference number19
Duration18 - 20 July 2011
Location
CityBerkeley
CountryUnited States of America

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0002-2939-2090/work/161887587

Keywords

Keywords

  • Column generation, Convex combination, Elastic demand, Least squares, Maximum entropy, Origin-destination trip table, Subnetwork analysis, Unconstrained optimization