Optimal dynamic pricing strategies for high-occupancy/toll lanes

Abstract

This paper proposes a self-learning approach to determine optimal pricing strategies for high-occupancy/toll lane operations. The approach learns recursively motorists’ willingness to pay by mining the loop detector data, and then specifies toll rates to maximize the freeway’s throughput while ensuring a superior travel service to the users of the toll lanes. In determination of the tolls, a multi-lane hybrid traffic flow model is used to explicitly consider the impacts of the lane-changing behaviors before the entry points of the toll lanes on throughput and travel time. Simulation experiments are conducted to demonstrate and validate the proposed approach, and provide insights on when to convert high-occupancy lanes to toll lanes.