Study on Congestion Pricing Model of Bus Lane Mixed Use by Carpool Vehicles

Abstract

Making use of bus lanes’ excess capacity by opening them to carpool vehicles is a method that can effectively mitigate traffic jams and improve the operating efficiency of roads. In order not to influence buses’ operation in bus lanes, congestion pricing is needed to regulate the volume of carpool vehicles in bus lanes. This paper analyzed the travel choice between carpool vehicles and single-occupancy vehicles when congestion pricing is used in bus lanes, and then proposes the congestion pricing model, in which the lowest average people cost and maximum road operating efficiency are the upper-layer objective model and the user equilibrium is the lower-layer objective model. The objective function of the model was solved by an advanced heuristic solution algorithm based on sensitivity analysis. Finally, a simple numerical example is given to illustrate the proposed model and algorithm.