Effect of intersection delay modeling on the performance of traffic equilibrium models

Intersection delay is a significant component of traffic delays. Different approaches for incorporating these delays into traffic assignment models are examined. The proposed methods are based on procedures for intersection analysis from the 1985 Highway Capacity Manual. Four different scenarios that vary in the degree of detail of intersection representation and the way they adopt Highway Capacity Manual procedures in incorporating delays at intersections are presented. These scenarios are subsequently used in a case study to test the accuracy of the predicted flows. The root mean square error of the prediction was found to decrease marginally with increase in the level of detail with which delays at intersections are modeled.