Author(s)

L. D’Acierno, M. Gallo & B. Montella

Abstract

This paper proposes a hyper-network model for simulating intermodal trips (such as park-and-ride trips) assuming elastic travel demand as regards mode choice. In particular, user flows on both road and transit networks can be estimated by the proposed model which is based on dummy links, with suitable cost functions, which are able to simulate virtually ‘on-network’ modal split and transfer operations. In particular, we state that, with these suitable functions, mathematical equivalence is ensured between the results obtained on the hypernetwork and those obtained by applying a general assignment model with elastic demand at mode choice level. Keywords: hyper-network approach, elastic demand, cross nested logit, parkand- ride trips. 1 Introduction The growth of urban traffic in larger cities and in metropolitan areas has produced in recent decades high congestion levels, mainly due to the preference of users for private cars. In these contexts, commuting from suburban zones to city centres has assumed very significant levels, with prominent interchange flows. In order to reduce congestion in urban centres, in several cities park-and-ride facilities are located on the main access roads, for intercepting interchange flows; these facilities allow users to park their cars and continue the trip by transit systems (rapid rail transit, bus lines, etc.). The park-and-ride facilities are also known as mode interchange nodes.

Keywords

hyper-network approach, elastic demand, cross nested logit, parkand- ride trips