A multiclass, multicriteria traffic network equilibrium model with elastic demand

In this paper, we develop a multiclass, multicriteria traffic network equilibrium model in which travelers of a class perceive their travel disutility or generalized cost on a route as a weighting of travel time and travel cost, each of which is flow-dependent. In addition, the weights are not only class-dependent but also link-dependent. The model is an elastic demand model and allows the demand function for each class and origin/destination (O/D) pair to depend, in general, upon the disutilities of all classes at all O/D pairs. The formulation of the governing equilibrium conditions, as well as the qualitative analysis, and the computational procedure, are based on finite-dimensional variational inequality theory. The model provides an alternative to existing multimodal and multicriteria traffic network equilibrium models and has location choice implications as well. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.