Collaborative road pricing strategy for heterogeneous vehicles considering emission constraints

Abstract

Urban transportation problems, primarily characterized by traffic congestion and exhaust emissions, continue to worsen, significantly impeding the economic and social development of cities. Road pricing strategies have emerged as an effective approach to tackle urban transportation problems, and their successful implementation in numerous cities have garnered significant attention. In this context, this study introduces a collaborative road pricing strategy tailored for mixed traffic flow comprising both conventional vehicles (CVs) and new energy vehicles (NEVs). CVs and NEVs are considered as two distinct types of cars with heterogeneous characteristics. The collaborative road pricing strategy consists of two components: congestion pricing and emission pricing. A bi-level programming model for the collaborative road pricing strategy is built. Exhaust emissions within the low-emission zone (LEZ) are used as constraints for the model, while the optimization objective of the model involves minimizing the sum of total travel time and total emissions of the road network. The viability of the proposed collaborative road pricing scheme is demonstrated through numerical tests within the second ring road in Beijing, China. The results imply that the service level of the road network can be improved by implementing the collaborative road pricing scheme. It also concludes that, increasing the penetration of new energy vehicles would help to decrease traffic congestion and emissions.