System optimal route choice strategy based on ant colony system

The research presents in this paper develops an Ant Colony System (ACS) based system optimal route choice strategy to ensure the rational traffic flow assignment for urban traffic network. In this work, the traffic flow and impedance function of each road section are calculated firstly, and then the individual traveler's route choice behaviors on network nodes are simulated based on applying the pseudo-random state transition rule, route and road section pheromone update formula, which implement the synthesizing of static prior knowledge, dynamic traffic state and the randomness of route choice. This paper's findings reveal that the designed strategy is in a position to reflecting the overlay and delay effect of route choice under different Origin-Destination (OD) demands. In addition, the findings can obtain better network equilibrium comparing with the incremental assignment method, and will benefit for achieving the route guidance system with time varying traffic conditions.