Methodology

Cube Avenue computes the lowest-cost path for each vehicle unit, based on its departure time, and computes interactions among vehicle units as they travel through the network. Cube Avenue estimates travel speeds based on vehicle density on road segments during each time increment. Because Cube Avenue models time explicitly, you can study time-specific policies, such as variable road pricing, lane closures on incidents.

 

Most urban areas can use existing data from their regional transportation model to implement Cube Avenue. Cube Avenue inputs include:

 

Cube Avenue is a dynamic equilibrium traffic assignment model. Cube Avenue loads and tracks the movement of vehicle packets throughout the roadway network. Vehicle packets can be of any size, from an individual vehicle up to platoons of 20 or more vehicles.

 

Cube Avenue explicitly simulates traffic flow and traffic control systems. Cube Avenue models traffic signals, roundabouts, stop-controlled intersections, and ramp merges. Vehicle packets move, stop, and queue through upstream roads and intersections.

 

Through an iterative process, Cube Avenue calculates optimal network conditions. Typically, the model converges in several iterations, an extremely fast process for smaller systems and quite feasible for large urban areas. Modelers have successfully applied Cube Avenue on areas with 3,000 zones and 25,000 links.

 

Cube Avenue produces performance measures for each time period: