A queue-based macroscopic model for performance evaluation of congested urban traffic networks

A macroscopic model of an urban traffic network is proposed in this paper. Such a model considers explicitly queues in the links, in order to take into account congestion phenomena which usually characterize urban traffic neworks (spillbacks, bottlenecks, etc.). The traffic network is modelled by means of a directed graph, and the equations which drive the dynamics of the system derive from the well-known LWR model. The proposed model has been applied to the urban traffic network of the city of Bologna, North Italy; in this connection, some results are reported in the paper.