Bi-level multi-objective model for existing link capacity expansion problem across urban transportation network considering travel time reliability: presenting dynamic particle swarm algorithm

Urban transportation network design and traffic control problems fall within the scope of infrastructural engineering sciences which become increasingly more important in ever-growing societies of today. In highly populated old cities where establishing new links are facing many human-related, social, economic, and political problems, a workaround for addressing traffic problems is to expand the capacity of existing links, so as to not only control the traffic, but also reduce the urban environmental pollutions caused by vehicles stuck in traffic and decrease the time wasted in traffic to accelerate routines of the society. In the present research, an urban transportation network design model is presented with the aim of enhancing travel time reliability by expanding the capacity of existing network links at minimum possible cost. A significant assumption taken in the present study is that demands in normal condition and peak traffic hours are treated separately, so as to prevent possible problems by congestion management. In the present study, the uncertainty associated with demand for travel, travel time, and the flow passing through different links are taken into consideration. Travel time reliability calculations are carried out assuming that the demand for travel and travel time follow lognormal distributions. In order to solve this bi-level model, particle swarm optimization algorithm was used. Incorporation of the inertial coefficients dynamics, personal learning, and communal learning into the algorithm contributes to the convergence of this algorithm for solving the bi-level model.