Multiple equilibrium behaviors of auto travellers and a freight carrier under the cordon-based large-truck restriction regulation

Abstract

The cordon-based large-truck restriction regulation (CBLTRR) makes large truck based cargo movement process interrupted because large trucks are deterred from moving into some specified areas within given time periods. As a result, cargoes carried by a large truck need to be transferred from the large truck to small ones at a freight distribution center (FDC) for the last few miles. This study aims to analyze the multiple equilibrium behaviors for auto travellers and one freight carrier under the CBLTRR. A link flow based generalized Nash equilibrium (GNE) model is first developed to characterize mixed routing behaviors of these two types of users. In the model, auto travellers follow first Wardropian principle to find their individual shortest paths, while the freight carrier minimizes its total freight cost. We then proceed to explore the existence and uniqueness of pure strategy equilibrium, and reduction to variational inequality. When the pure strategy equilibrium does not exist or is intractable, we propose an approach to construct a mixed equilibrium with restricted action space (i.e., the path choice set) (called restricted mixed equilibrium). The restricted action space is formed based on recurring best-responses of two types of users which could reflect their actual interactive decisions of a non-cooperative traffic pattern evolution. A solution algorithm is developed to find those equilibriums. The developed models and solution algorithms are evaluated and their potential applications are illustrated through numerical experiments.