Abstract
Traffic congestion is a major challenge in metropolitan areas due to economic and negative health impacts. Several strategies have been tested all around the globe to relieve traffic congestion and minimize transportation externalities. Congestion pricing is among the most cited strategies with the potential to manage the travel demand. This study aims to investigate potential travel behavior changes in response to cordon pricing in Manhattan, New York. Several pricing schemes with variable cordon charging fees are designed and examined using an activity-based microsimulation travel demand model. The findings demonstrate a decreasing trend in the total number of trips interacting with the central business district (CBD) as the price goes up, except for intrazonal trips. We also analyze a set of other performance measures, such as Vehicle-Hours of Delay, Vehicle-Miles Traveled, and vehicle emissions. While the results show considerable growth in transit ridership (6%), single-occupant vehicles and taxis trips destined to the CBD reduced by 30% and 40%, respectively, under the $20 pricing scheme. The aggregated value of delay for all vehicles was also reduced by 32%. Our findings suggest that cordon pricing can positively ameliorate transportation network performance and consequently, improve air quality by reducing particular matter inventory by up to 17.5%. The results might facilitate public acceptance of cordon pricing strategies for the case study of NYC. More broadly, this study provides a robust framework for decision-makers across the US for further analysis on the subject.
Highlights
With population growth and expansion of urban areas after World War II, and in light of the dominance of vehicles for urban mobility in the U.S, congestion has become a common phenomenon that threatens the sustainability of the cities
Olszewski and Xie [9] studied the reaction to the Singapore Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system that charges users for entering the central business district (CBD) based on the time of day and the vehicle type
This paper studies how pricing scenarios in New York City can impact transportation demand, network performance, and traffic emissions
Summary
With population growth and expansion of urban areas after World War II, and in light of the dominance of vehicles for urban mobility in the U.S, congestion has become a common phenomenon that threatens the sustainability of the cities. Olszewski and Xie [9] studied the reaction to the Singapore Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system that charges users for entering the CBD based on the time of day and the vehicle type They employed multinomial logit models (MNL) with the choice set of rescheduling and rerouting. A comprehensive, continuous, and precise analysis is necessary to simulate the outcome of the pricing policy in terms of demand variation, network performance, and traffic emissions This ex-ante study aims at analyzing how pricing strategies in New York City impact on transportation demand, network assignment, and traffic emissions by studying the public reaction to cordon pricing through changes in their activity patterns. The paper concludes with a summary of findings and outlines future research directions
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