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Virginia Tech

A Method to Enhance the Performance of Synthetic Origin-Destination (O-D) Trip Table Estimation Models

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

The conventional methods of determining the Origin-Destination (O-D) trip tables involve elaborate surveys, such as home interviews, requiring considerable time, manpower and funds. To overcome this drawback, a number of theoretical models that synthesize O-D trip tables from link volume data have been developed in the past. The focus of this research was on two of these models, namely, The Highway Emulator (THE) and the Linear Programming (LP) models. These models use target/seed tables for guiding the modeled trip tables. In an earlier research effort conducted by Virginia Tech Center for Transportation Research, potential was noted for enhancing these models' performances by using a superior target/seed table. This research study exploits the readily available socio-economic/census data and link volume information and proposes a methodology for obtaining improved target/seed tables, by performing the trip generation and trip distribution steps. This table was provided as target to THE and LP models, and their performances evaluated using Pulaski town as case study. In addition to measuring the closeness of the output tables to surveyed tables and their capability to replicate observed volumes, their improvements over the case when a structural table is used as target was also studied. Tests showed that the use of the superior target/seed table significantly improved the performance of the LP model. However, for THE, mixed trends are seen in terms of different measures of closeness. The sensitivity of the user parameter to place certain degree of belief on the target/seed table for LP model was also analyzed.

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science
Level thesis:degree_level
masters
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Civil Engineering
Department dc:contributor.department
Civil Engineering
Grantor dc:publisher
Virginia Tech
Year dc:date.issued
1997

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Nanda, Dhruv
Chair dc:contributor.committeechair
  • Sivanandan, R.
Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember
  • Arnold, Eugene D. Jr.
  • Trani, Antonio A.

Subjects

dc:subject × 4

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • In Copyright

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
Dc Identifier Other
etd-52597-2134
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/36793

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Virginia Tech
Base URL
vtechworks.lib.vt.edu/oai/request
Last updated
2026-07-22
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Nanda, Dhruv. A Method to Enhance the Performance of Synthetic Origin-Destination (O-D) Trip Table Estimation Models. masters thesis, Virginia Tech, 1997. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/36793