Towards a generic benchmarking platform for origin–destination flows estimation/updating algorithms: Design, demonstration and validation. (May 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Antoniou, Constantinos; Barceló, Jaume; Breen, Martijn; Bullejos, Manuel; Casas, Jordi; Cipriani, Ernesto; Ciuffo, Biagio; Djukic, Tamara; Hoogendoorn, Serge; Marzano, Vittorio; Montero, Lídia; Nigro, Marialisa; Perarnau, Josep; Punzo, Vincenzo; Toledo, Tomer; van Lint, Hans
• Is Part Of: Transportation research. Volume 66(2016)
• Page Start: 79
• Page End: 98
• Publication Date: 2016-05
• Subjects: Traffic modelling -- Origin–Destination (OD) estimation/updating -- Benchmarking platform -- Simulation-based DTA; Transportation -- Periodicals; Transportation -- Technological innovations -- Periodicals; 388.011
• DOI: 10.1016/j.trc.2015.08.009
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0968-090X

Abstract

Highlights: Dynamic Origin–Destination flows are a key input for traffic modelling and policy making. A benchmarking framework for comparison of OD estimation algorithms is proposed. Considerably different approaches in a variety of settings/conditions can be tested. The platform, available to interested parties upon request, is described and illustrated. Applications to both off-line/planning and on-line algorithms are presented. Abstract: Estimation/updating of Origin–Destination (OD) flows and other traffic state parameters is a classical, widely adopted procedure in transport engineering, both in off-line and in on-line contexts. Notwithstanding numerous approaches proposed in the literature, there is still room for considerable improvements, also leveraging the unprecedented opportunity offered by information and communication technologies and big data. A key issue relates to the unobservability of OD flows in real networks – except from closed highway systems – thus leading to inherent difficulties in measuring performance of OD flows estimation/updating methods and algorithms. Starting from these premises, the paper proposes a common evaluation and benchmarking framework, providing a synthetic test bed, which enables implementation and comparison of OD estimation/updating algorithms and methodologies under "standardized" conditions. The framework, implemented in a platform available to interested parties upon request, has been flexibly designed and allows comparing a variety of approaches under various settings and conditions. Specifically, the structure and the key features of the framework are presented, along with a detailed experimental design for the application of different dynamic OD flow estimation algorithms. By way of example, applications to both off-line/planning and on-line algorithms are presented, together with a demonstration of the extensibility of the presented framework to accommodate additional data sources.