Preface After working on my PhD project for several years, finally it is time to write the preface of my dissertation. I cannot help looking back upon the past several years in the Netherlands. Many people have helped me during my journey pursuing the doctoral degree. First of all, I would like to express my deepest appreciation to my supervisors Prof. Bart De Schutter and Prof. Hans Hellendoorn. Bart has always been nice and patient with me. He helped me both on my research and on other

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... lties that I experienced. He encouraged me a lot when things were not going so well. I also appreciate Hans very much for the discussions with him and for encouraging me with nice words. Then, I would like to sincerely thank my supervisor Prof. Yulin Zhang in National University of Defense Technology, China. Under the supervision of Prof. Zhang, I started to learn how to do research during my master period. Moreover, I appreciate Prof. Zhang very much for supporting me on studying overseas. Next, my gratitude goes to Anna, Jośe, and Alfredo for their helps on my research. I appreciate them for their suggestions on improving my papers. Moreover, I thank Goof and Andreas for providing me a freeway network in VISSIM and necessary data for one of my case studies. I appreciate Zhe a lot for providing me the C codes for METANET.