DEVELOPMENT OF SOFTWARE FOR TRIP ASSIGNMENT IN URBAN AREAS

Abstract

The main objective of transportation planning is to plan a transportation network for efficient, comfortable and safe traffic operations at minimal cost. A set of alternative transport plans is generated for the horizon year. The operating characteristics of each alternative in the horizon year are estimated in the form of flows in the network. The transportation planning process relies on travel-demand forecasting, which involves predicting the impacts that various transportation policies and programs will have on travel in urban areas. This report deals with the last phase of the travel-demand forecasting i.e. trip assignment. The choice of routes in the development of transportation network is based on certain parameters like journey time, distance, cost, comfort and safety. Volume of travel on each component of the network is estimated by simulating volumes on the existing network. In the case of large networks, the assignment of routes by manual methods becomes an ominous and challenging exercise. Various methods and techniques of network assignment are available today, but almost all of them have some limitations in handling very large networks. The scenario of computer applications in the field of Civil Engineering has taken giant steps in the last decade or so, especially in relation to Computer Aided Design (CAD). The application of CAD has many advantages like providing user-friendly interface, increased accuracy, large storage and minimal computational time. Keeping the above aspects in view, a generalized and user-friendly software for trip assignment in urban areas called `TRASCARE — 2002' has been developed. The software uses the Moore's algorithm for minimum path and capacity restraint assignment technique. The source code of the software is written in 'C' language. The output is in the form of a graphical road network with details like nodes, links, highlighted minimum path, traffic volume on all links on the minimum path and link travel times on all links.