Traffic assignment problem for footpath networks with bidirectional links

Abstract

The estimation of pedestrian traffic in urban areas is often performed with computationally intensive microscopic models that usually suffer from scalability issues in large-scale footpath networks. In this study, we present a new macroscopic user equilibrium traffic assignment problem (UE-pTAP) framework for pedestrian networks while taking into account fundamental microscopic properties such as self-organization in bidirectional streams and stochastic walking travel times. We propose four different types of pedestrian volume-delay functions (pVDFs), calibrate them with empirical data, and discuss their implications on the existence and uniqueness of the traffic assignment solution. We demonstrate the applicability of the developed UE-pTAP framework in a small network as well as a large scale network of Sydney footpaths.