The quantitative analysis of road network traffic performed through static
assignment models yields the transport demand-supply equilibrium under
the assumption of within-day stationarity. This implies that the relevant
variables of the system (i.e. user flows, travel times, costs) are assumed to
be constant over time within the reference period. Although static
assignment models satisfactorily reproduce congestion effects on traffic flow
and cost patterns, they do not allow to represent the variation over time of
the demand flows (i.e. around the rush hour) and of the network
performances (i.e. in presence of time varying tolls, lane usage, signal plans,
link usage permission); most importantly, they cannot reproduce some
important dynamic phenomena, such as the formation and dispersion of
vehicle queues due to the temporary over-saturation of road sections, and
the spillback, that is queues propagation towards upstream roads
