Evaluating the Effects of Disruptions on the Behavior of Travelers in a Multimodal Network Utilizing Agent-Based Simulation

Abstract

Disruptions in transport networks have major adverse implications on passengers and service providers, as they can yield delays, decreased productivity, and inconvenience for travelers. Previous studies have considered the vulnerability of connections and infrastructures. Although such studies provide insights on general disruption management approaches, there is a lack of knowledge concerning integrated multi-level traffic management and its effects on travelers to reduce the impacts of disruptions. Integrated multi-level traffic management refers to coordinating individual network operations to create an interconnected mobility management system. This study sought to assess the management of road disruption utilizing multi-level disruption management. Multi-level disruption management is proposed that integrates an information dissemination strategy and allows changing the functionality of parking spaces to traffic lanes to facilitate the movement of travelers. The capacity/frequency of public transport vehicles is also increased to help travelers reach their destinations by changing to public transport mode. To achieve such goals, an extension to an agent-based simulation was developed. Numerical experiments are applied to a part of the city of Zürich. The results indicate that the proposed approach, multi-level disruption management in a multimodal network, can shorten travelers’ delays, especially comparing the effects of disruption management. Results show heterogeneity of behavior among agents. Adding lanes as a disruption management enhances the usage of car-mode by all agents, whereas it reduces the usage of car-mode by the directly affected agents, those who cannot pass the disrupted roads. In the presence of full information and increased capacity of transit vehicles, delay is reduced by 47%.