A modified iterative scheme for the equilibrium traffic signal setting problem

This chapter on a modified iterative scheme for the equilibrium traffic signal setting (ETSS) problem is one in a book of essays published in honor of David Boyce for his contributions to the fields of transportation modeling and regional science. In this chapter, the author begins by providing essential background on ETSS, including formally defining the problem and presenting a selective overview of the relevant literature. The author then discusses the motivation and the key features of a proposed approach to ETSS, and outlines the details of the modeling framework and solution algorithm. The author also presents and discusses the results of numerical experiments in which the proposed approach is implemented on a small test network, but using realistic link delay functions as descriptors of intersection performance. The author concludes that results obtained from the numerical tests are encouraging and suggest that the proposed approach to ETSS may represent a worthwhile step toward an improved description of the real-world evolution of network conditions ensuing from the interaction of route choice and traffic-responsive signal control.