Analysing the Capacity of the Urban Road Transport Network Using a Dynamic Assignment Model in The Bistrița - Târgu Mureș Geographical Axis

Abstract

Network capacity in a transportation system becomes an important measurement for transport planning and management because it addresses its capability to satisfy an efficient network traffic flow reducing the inefficiency of congestion phenomena. This work provides a discussion of road urban transport network capacity including existing definitions in literature and the validation of new measurement methods. The study explores some of the properties of network-wide traffic flow relationships in a large-scale complex urban street network using real-time simulated results obtained from a dynamic traffic assignment model, periodically updated by data from radar sensors through rolling horizon technics. The basic variables used in the methodology, such as network flows and speeds, are characterized using a network model calibrated in the urban area of the geographical axis Bistrița-Târgu Mureș. For a comprehensive yet simple analysis, equations, and graphs are utilized to resume the obtained results related to different days and several time intervals of the day. The focus of sustainable urban transportation development lies in realizing the untapped capacity potential of the existing road network and enhancing its operational efficiency without expanding its physical footprint. To quantify the supply capacity of road networks in mountainous cities, this paper converts the problem of solving the capacity of road networks into the problem of solving the minimum cut set in road networks from the perspective of road network capacity, using the idea of the auxiliary diagram method in graph theory. This procedure proved to be suitable for investigating the properties of network-level traffic flow relationships and concluding remarks include suggestions for further research in this highly promising area.