A genetic algorithm for trip distribution and traffic assignment from traffic counts in a stochastic user equilibrium

A network model and a Genetic Algorithm (GA) is proposed to solve the simultaneous estimation of the trip distribution and traffic assignment from traffic counts in the congested networks in a logit-based Stochastic User Equilibrium (SUE). The model is formulated as a problem of minimizing a non-linear objective function with the linear constraints. In the model, the flow-conservation constraints are utilized to restrict the solution space and to force the link flows become consistent to the traffic counts. The objective of the model is to minimize the discrepancies between two sets of link flows. One is the set of link flows satisfying the constraints of flow-conservation, trip production from origin, trip attraction to destination and traffic counts at observed links. The other is the set of link flows those are estimated through the trip distribution and traffic assignment using the path flow estimator in the logit-based SUE. In the proposed GA, a chromosome is defined as a real vector representing a set of Origin-Destination Matrix (ODM), link flows and route-choice dispersion coefficient. Each chromosome is evaluated by the corresponding discrepancies. The population of the chromosome is evolved by the concurrent simplex crossover and random mutation. To maintain the feasibility of solutions, a bounded vector shipment technique is used during the crossover and mutation.