Distance-Dependent Congestion Pricing for Downtown Zones

A growing literature exploits macroscopic theories of traffic to model congestion pricing policies in downtown zones. This study introduces trip length heterogeneity into this analysis and proposes a usage-based, time-varying congestion toll that alleviates congestion while prioritizing shorter trips. Unlike conventional trip-based tolls the scheme is intended to align the fees paid by drivers with the actual congestion damage they do, and to increase the toll's benets as a result. The scheme is intended to maximize the number of people that finish their trips close to their desired times. The usage-based toll is compared to a traditional, trip-based toll which neglects trip length. It is found that, like trip-based tolls, properly designed usage-based tolls alleviate congestion. But they reduce schedule delay more than trip-based tolls and do so with much smaller user fees. As a result usage-based tolls always leave those who pay with a large welfare gain. This may increase the tolls' political acceptability.

• Record URL:
  http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/9vz1b9rs
• Record URL:
  https://merritt.cdlib.org/d/ark%3A%2F13030%2Fm5df85cm/1/producer%2F892429460.pdf
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/892429460
• Corporate Authors:

  University of California, Berkeley

  Institute of Transportation Studies
  McLaughlin Hall
  Berkeley, CA  United States  94720
• Authors:
  • Daganzo, Carlos F
  • Lehe, Lewis J
• Publication Date: 2014-10-6

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: 17p
• Serial:
  • University of California, Berkeley. Institute of Transportation Studies. Working Paper

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Central business districts; Congestion pricing; Distance; Mileage-based user fees; Traffic delays; Trip length; Variable tolls
• Uncontrolled Terms: Fundamental diagram
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning; I73: Traffic Control;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01562383
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: UC Berkeley Transportation Library
• Report/Paper Numbers: UCB-ITS-WP-2014-3
• Files: CALTRANS, TRIS, ATRI, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Apr 28 2015 3:11PM