A hybrid solution method for the bi-objective traffic counting location problem using previous origin–destination trip tables

Highway monitoring with traffic counting stations can provide data for the transportation planning such as the origin–destination (O-D) trip tables. These O-D trip tables are important in the process of estimating traffic flow on the highways, indicating where new investments are required. This paper presents a hybrid solution method for the Bi-objective Traffic Couting Location Problem (BTCLP) considering previous trip tables. The BTCLP minimizes the number of counting stations located and maximizes the coverage of the O-D trips. The concept of coverage of trips between an O-D pair considers that a user can use different paths given a maximum deviation of the shortest path. The hybrid solution combines strategies from the ϵ -Constraint method with an existing Partial Set Covering Framework and can be used as exact or heuristic approach. We explore scenarios considering different limits for deviations from shortest path for 26 real instances based on the Brazilian transportation road network. Our computational experiments show that the hybrid solution method provides good solutions for large-sized instances.