Dynamic System Optimum: A Projection-based Framework for Macroscopic Traffic Models

Abstract: This paper proposes the theoretical grounds for emulating the Dynamic System Optimum with desired arrival times on regional networks, using aggregated traffic dynamics based on the Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram. We used a projection gradient-based solution method that avoids the need to compute approximations of marginal travel times. We demonstrate the application of our framework on 8-region networks and show that our approach yields improved solutions compared to classical approximation methods in the literature, such as the Method of Successive Averages and the gap-based approach.