A dynamical system model of the traffic assignment problem

User equilibrium is a central concept for studying transportation networks, and one can view it as the result of a dynamical process of drivers’ route choice behavior. In this paper, based on a definition of O–D first-in-first-out violation, we propose a new dynamical system model of the route choice behavior at the aggregate, route level for both static and dynamic transportation networks. An equilibrium of such a dynamical system can be a user equilibrium or a partial user equilibrium. We prove that, for static, symmetric traffic assignment problem with fixed or variable demand, only user equilibria are stable for the dynamical system, and the objective function in the mathematical programming formulation [Beckmann, M., McGuire, C.B., Winsten, C.B., 1956. Studies in the Economics of Transportation. Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, also published as Rand-RM-1488-PR, Rand Corporation, Santa Monica, CA, May 12, 1955.] can be considered as the potential energy of the dynamical system. We then present an Euler-based perturbation method for finding user equilibrium and solve two examples for both static and dynamic traffic assignment problems. This new model is simple in form and could be applied to analyze other properties of transportation networks.