Toll Lanes Research Articles

Impacts of a Toll Information Sign and Toll Lane Configuration on Queue Length and Collision Risk at a Toll Plaza with a High Percentage of Heavy Vehicles

Impacts of a Toll Information Sign and Toll Lane Configuration on Queue Length and Collision Risk at a Toll Plaza with a High Percentage of Heavy Vehicles

A theoretic analysis of expressed toll lane pricing policy targeting for a guaranteed level of service

This study compares the first-best toll algorithm that is theoretically appealing with the density-based toll algorithm that is more popular in practice. The comparison shows that both toll schemes can serve as a travel demand management strategy. Although the first-best scheme always leads to minimal total travel time, it is not necessarily attractive from toll operators' perspective. The density-based scheme is (1) more reliable for ensuring the federally mandated minimal level of services when the demand is high, (2) simpler for data collection and implementation, and (3) can generate higher revenues. From the users' perspective, the first-best scheme leads to less total costs in many cases, but the density-based scheme could also lead to less total costs under certain conditions. Traffic patterns could converge in both cases under a day-to-day framework. The speed of convergence for traffic dynamics is faster under the density-based scheme in most cases.

Simulation Approach to Estimate the Potential of High-Occupancy Toll Lanes on German Freeways

This paper focuses on the potential of HOT lanes (high-occupancy toll lanes) in Germany. For this, various scenarios were defined and simulated on a synthetic road network that adheres to German guidelines. The results demonstrated that HOT lanes offered travel time advantages for carpoolers and HOT vehicles but led to longer travel times for single-occupancy vehicles and trucks. Scenarios with higher costs per kilometer generally reinforced the promotion of high-occupancy vehicles and encouraged a shift toward public transport. In contrast, low cost rates had a negative impact on the desired modal split, as the low cost of using the HOT lane became an incentive for comfortable HOT travel rather than carpooling or using public transport. With regard to CO2 and NOx emissions, we demonstrated the unexpected consequences of HOT lanes, when the general traffic flow worsened. In all scenarios, the emissions for both groups were consistently higher than in the baseline scenario without a managed lane, because of the reduced traffic flow. Overall, scenarios with higher costs per kilometer were more favorable in relation to emissions, as the displacement effect toward carpooling vehicles and public transport reduced the overall number of vehicles in the system. This issue may need to be addressed with the implementation of intelligent traffic management systems, especially those that can influence speed. Taking a comprehensive view of the results, HOT lanes in Germany offer the potential for improving traffic conditions and optimizing modal split. However, the limitations of their application must be taken into account.

Exploring the willingness to pay for high-occupancy toll lanes under conditions of low familiarity

This study evaluates details of a progressive transportation development model, wherein high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes are transformed into high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes. Although the management strategy of HOT lanes has been implemented for many years, the implementation of HOT lanes is limited in many regions, and thus, many people remain unfamiliar with the concept. This study aims to evaluate travelers' willingness to pay for HOT lanes based on a “low application” scenario in Shenzhen, China, wherein some HOV lanes are present and may potentially be transformed into HOT lanes, but not all area residents are aware of their intended purpose. According to the Diffusion of Innovation Theory, we leverage this situation to conduct a survey of perceptions and attitudes toward the HOT lanes and evaluate how these perspectives may translate to HOT lane utilization. We further proposed a hybrid utility and regret model considering the impacts of loss aversion caused by tolls or coordinated carpooling for single occupancy vehicles to explore relationships between travel behavior and surveyed demographic and socio-economic characteristics in the context of HOT lanes in places where they are unfamiliar. A sensitivity analysis is conducted to characterize any apparent changing influences. The results show that the model considering decision regret performs well, especially in the scenario with low tolls. Nearly 80% of travelers are willing to pay tolls for HOT lanes, even with limited prior exposure to the concept. The increased acceptance of HOT lanes can be expected to hurt total toll revenue, which may be triggered by easier access to carpool partners associated with the free pass. The study informs a deeper understanding of travelers’ willingness to pay for HOT lanes and helps policy-makers develop differentiated tolling strategies.

Research on the Expansion Application of Electronic Toll Collection System

Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system is an important part of modern intelligent transport system, which plays an important role in intelligent car parks and congestion charging. Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) system includes automatic vehicle identification system and electronic billing system. The automatic vehicle identification system includes three parts: automatic vehicle identification (AVI), automatic vehicle model identification (AVC) and inspection system (ES).The application of ETC in intelligent car parks and congestion charging also includes automatic vehicle identification system (automatic vehicle identification, automatic vehicle model identification and inspection system) and electronic billing system. In intelligent car parks, ETC technology achieves fast and accurate automatic toll payment by automatically identifying the ETC tags carried by vehicles, which greatly improves the efficiency of car parks and reduces the queuing and waiting time due to manual toll collection. In terms of congestion charging, ETC technology provides an effective means to implement congestion charge collection. By setting up ETC toll lanes in core urban areas or busy road sections, the system can automatically record the information of the vehicles passing through and carry out toll settlement, thus realising dynamic toll collection according to the degree of congestion and the frequency of vehicle use. This congestion charging strategy aims to regulate urban traffic flow through economic means, alleviate traffic congestion and promote the sustainable development of urban transport. Although China's theoretical research on congestion charging, has been relatively mature, but affected by a variety of factors, no city has yet to start the implementation of congestion charging, the lack of experience in practice. Singapore will not stop the car charging system (ETC) technology successfully applied to urban congestion charging and intelligent car parks, ETC system in intelligent car parks and congestion charging application, help to promote the development of urban transport to a more intelligent, green direction. China can learn from the successful experience of foreign countries and apply it to its own intelligent car parks and congestion charging. This paper introduces the basic principle of ETC, discusses the research progress of ETC in terms of technical characteristics, and analyses the application scenarios of ETC in intelligent car parks and congestion charging. By examining the opportunities offered by Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) systems in smart car parks and congestion pricing, this study aims to delve into the transformative impacts of Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) systems on intelligent mobility and contribute to the sustainable development of intelligent mobility.

Predicting vehicle trajectory of non-lane based driving behaviour with Temporal Fusion Transformer

Complex road sections without lane markings cannot constrain vehicles to follow the lane disciplines. As a result, vehicles often exhibit more disorderly rapid lateral movements (RLMs) in these areas, making it difficult to accurately predict vehicle trajectories. This study takes toll plaza diverging area as an example to propose a framework incorporated the Hidden Markov Model (HMM) and Temporal Fusion Transformer (TFT) for vehicle trajectory prediction in non-lane based complex road sections. The results demonstrate that the vehicles exhibit more RLMs when there are more toll lanes matching their toll collection types. Validated on two toll plaza diverging areas with different structures, the proposed framework achieves higher prediction accuracy than other state-of-the-art predictive methods, particularly in long prediction horizons. In addition, the interpretability of TFT suggests that incorporating RLM intention prediction and environmental factors specific to non-lane based areas into trajectory prediction is of great importance.

Case Study Evaluation of a New Approach to Price Metropolitan Highways for Congestion Relief, Sustainability and Equity

This paper addresses the practically important challenge of devising efficient and politically feasible congestion pricing policies in the context of metropolitan highways. Congestion on metropolitan highways continues to grow while governments struggle to fund alternative modes of travel. The purpose of this paper is to explore the viability of a new approach to address highway congestion while also accommodating the mobility needs of those who don’t drive. It involves creating congestion-priced lanes on limited access highways without adding new lanes. The lanes would be taken from general use and reserved for high-occupancy vehicles (HOV), transit vehicles and toll-payers, with cash rewards paid to HOV and transit users to attract solo drivers to shared travel. Variable tolls charged to lower-occupancy vehicles on the dedicated lanes would limit traffic demand on the lanes, keep traffic flowing, and fund the cash rewards. Rewards would be high enough to attract a sufficient number of drivers to ride as passengers instead so that congestion would be eliminated on the toll lanes and reduced on the remaining toll-free lanes through mode shifts. The policy-level analysis using a real-world case study of a radial highway segment with directional peaking suggests that this congestion pricing/cash rewards strategy could generate surplus revenues and provide financial support for bus rapid transit operating on the congestion-free lanes.

The cellular traffic capacity model of toll station square

Traffic capacity is an important index to measure the operation efficiency of expressway toll stations. In order to pro-vide relevant theoretical support for accurately evaluating the congestion degree and service level of toll stations, this paper establishes a traffic capacity calculation model for the square in front of expressway toll stations based on the traditional cellular transmission method. Firstly, by dividing the square in front of the station into regular cells, the process of calculating the traffic capacity is simplified; Secondly, the capacity model of the square in front of the station is established based on cellular transmission, and a large amount of data is collected through the monitoring videos of several toll stations. The theoretical capacity of the square in front of the station is calculated by using the important parameters of the model calibrated by the measured data under different lengths of the square in front of the station and the configuration of toll lanes. Then, the simulation platform of VISSIM software is used, and many experi-ments are carried out with relevant measured data to verify the accuracy of the model in multiple scenarios. Finally, the simulation value of the capacity of the square in front of the station is obtained, and the error is calculated by using the simulation value and the calculation value. The results show that the error of the verification result is 5.19%, and the error is within the allowable range, which shows that the model is accurate and feasible. The theoretical capacity calculated by the capacity model of the square in front of the toll station established in this paper is com-pared with the actual capacity, which can be used as a standard to judge the congestion degree of the square in front of the toll station and further provide a theoretical reference for evacuation of congestion.

Some like it HOT: The racialization of mobility, the racial tax state, and silence in managed lane conversions

ABSTRACT Transportation in the United States is a deeply and intricately racialized system. In this paper, we use Seiler’s ideas regarding the racialization of mobility and Henricks and Seamster’s theory of the racial tax state, in conjunction with Presser’s analysis of the unsaid, to explain high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) to high-occupancy toll (HOT) lane conversions in U.S. metropolitan areas. We argue that silence on race in the major push for HOV to HOT lane conversions by libertarian “think tanks” and U.S. Department of Transportation guidance is fundamental to instrumentalizing transportation policy for racist tax regimes.

Emission modeling at toll plaza under mixed traffic condition using simulation.

Mixed traffic conditions, i.e., the presence of different vehicle classes in a toll lane, causes congestion, leading to extra delay and emissions. The determination of the emission levels in the field is tedious process and thus there is need to look over it. Further, the dynamic toll pricing schemes are well established in developed countries to mitigate the congestion, but its application in developing countries is not observed so far. Hence, an attempt is made in the present study to establish the dynamic toll rates based on emission at toll plazas operating under mixed traffic conditions. The sensitivity analysis is carried out by changing the traffic composition and the approach volume in simulation. After that, the traffic composition and approach volume-based emission estimation equations are developed that can be used to predict the emissions easily in the field. The methodology finally moves towards the development of emission-based toll rates (EBTR).

Reliable capacity of electronic toll collection lanes

For proper planning, design and operation of an electronic highway toll facility, the capacity of the toll lane is an important aspect that needs to be considered. Although the capacities of roads and intersections are generally referred to as stochastic in nature, toll lane capacity is still considered as a deterministic value. A study was undertaken into the variation in service headway and thus reliability related to capacity values for toll lanes. Videographic traffic data were collected at three electronic toll plazas in India. The service headway of cars was found to be lower compared to vehicles with trailers. A Monte Carlo simulation was used to generate the different variations that may occur in the service headway owing to supply-side and demand-side changes. Finally, the capacity for 80%, 90% and 95% reliability was found as 494, 554 and 608 passenger cars per hour, respectively. The developed capacity values can be used to check the volume-to-capacity ratio in a mixed traffic lane and can be used to develop the level-of-service thresholds for electronic toll collection lanes in future studies.

Effects of Object-Oriented Advance Guidance Signage on Lane-Changing Behaviors at the Mainline Toll Stations of Expressways

China has actively promoted electronic toll collection (ETC), increasing the proportion of ETC vehicles, and the number of ETC lanes at mainline toll stations has exceeded that of manual toll collection (MTC) lanes. To investigate the effects of ETC and MTC vehicles as guidance objects on the lane-changing behaviors of drivers, we designed three guidance signal plans, including the original sign plan (OR), a complete MTC sign plan (CMS), and a complete MTC sign plan with voice warnings (VW&CMS), for expressway mainline toll lanes. A driving simulator experiment with 40 participants was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of the plans. Generalized estimating equations were used to analyze the characteristics of lane-changing behaviors in different guidance plans, and an entropy weight model using the technique of ranking the order of preference by its similarity to the ideal solution (TOPSIS) was constructed to evaluate the guidance effects of different plans. The results showed that the CMS and VW&CMS plans significantly improved lane-changing behaviors. This improvement is demonstrated by a higher lane-changing ratio, shorter response time, earlier initiation of lane-changing location, higher speed, lower deceleration rate, and longer lane-changing duration distance. These findings can help expressway designers to optimize the guidance-sign system for mainline toll stations.

Dynamic Pricing Strategy for High-Occupancy Toll Lanes Considering the Tradeoffs between Traffic Efficiency and User Experience

Dynamic Pricing Strategy for High-Occupancy Toll Lanes Considering the Tradeoffs between Traffic Efficiency and User Experience

Analysis on Lane Capacity for Expressway Toll Station Using Toll Data

Toll stations are bottlenecks in the traffic flow of expressways, and the evaluation of their capacity is essential for the operation of the expressway. Traditional capacity studies are mostly based on theoretical modelling of traffic engineering or simulation, with a focus on parameter tuning and idealized hypotheses, resulting in poor reliability. In view of the coexistence of electronic toll collection lanes and compound toll collection lanes at toll stations of expressways in China, the present study analyses the capacity of entrance and exit lanes of toll stations under mixed traffic conditions using a real toll data-driven approach. Firstly, the service time of a single vehicle during the saturation period was taken as the starting point for the capacity estimates. Secondly, the variation in service time for multiple categories of vehicles is modelled using lognormal distribution. Finally, the capacity of the two types of toll lanes at the designated toll station is determined. The important outcome of this study is the calculation of authentic capacity at the toll stations and the discussion of individual special toll lanes. Accordingly, it contributes to the development of appropriate policies to manage the operation of the toll plaza effectively.

Managing Limited Access Highways for High Performance: Costs, Benefits, and Revenues

Managed lanes are a set of lanes where highway operations strategies are actively applied in response to changing conditions. High-Occupancy/Toll (HOT) and Express Toll lanes are examples of managed lanes. The transportation operations concept discussed in this article involves conversion of existing freeways (all lanes) into premium-service free-flowing highways that provide fast, frequent, and inexpensive express bus service and charge all private vehicles a variable toll—except for authorized buses and certified ridesharing vehicles. The toll would vary by level of demand and would be set high enough to guarantee that excessive demand will not cause a breakdown of traffic flow. This article discusses the advantages of this concept. It introduces a new sketch-planning tool that provides estimates of costs, benefits, and revenues from applying the concept on a highway network in a prototypical large metropolitan area. The estimates suggest that implementing the concept can provide significant net social benefits. It may also generate sufficient new toll revenue to pay for all costs for implementation and operation, including new express bus and park-and-ride services that would complement the pricing scheme.

Accounting for preference heterogeneity for high occupancy toll lanes in a Canadian city: a latent class approach

ABSTRACT We investigate traveler preference heterogeneity for high occupancy toll (HOT) roads in Calgary, Canada. We employ a set of latent class discrete choice models that allows for within-class heterogeneity to be captured. This is the first use of latent class models to understand lane choice along a freeway with managed lanes. The use of a latent class structure is justified based on both an improvement in overall fit relative to conventional models and the capacity of this model to provide behavioral insights into preference heterogeneity. The proposed latent class structure captures several interesting trends, including an inversion between travel time and travel cost elasticities across different classes. Using the approach of inferring lifestyles and mobility styles from class membership several interesting trends are established. The finding of high degrees of time sensitivity relative to cost sensitivity amongst certain segments of the population has implications for setting an optimal toll price.

Lane Choice Behavior at Toll Plaza Under Mixed Traffic Conditions Using TODIM Method: A Case Study

The main objective of the present study is to prepare an algorithm for the choice of lane causing minimum delay based on drivers’ perception using a Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) method. The TODIM (Portuguese acronym for Interactive Multi-Criteria Decision-Making) is based on the prospect theory. The effect of human behavior on lane choice at toll plaza is studied using the user perception survey. The data required is collected by pictorial survey at the toll plaza, nearby petrol pumps, and hotels. The pictorial survey includes the scenarios to understand the lane choice based on the user preferences about the vehicle composition, number of vehicles in queue, and lane changes. In the case of toll plazas, toll lanes are the alternatives, and vehicle composition of toll lanes, number of vehicles in the queue, and number of lane changes required to choose the target lane are all different criteria. A vehicle entering the toll area has to take care of all the available conditions and select an alternative to minimize the delay. The TODIM method requires the weightage matrix of the criteria, which is obtained using the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP). It is seen that the number of vehicles in the queue has the highest weightage followed by the proportion of heavy vehicles. These are the prime factors affecting the lane choice behavior at the toll plaza. The algorithm can be further used to predict the best alternative for the emerging vehicle, which will help to minimize its delay.

Optimal control method of freeway based on tollbooths lane configuration and variable speed limit control

There are tollbooths on some freeway ramps, and toll lanes can be divided into Electronic Toll Collection (ETC), Manual Toll Collection system (MTC), ETC/MTC hybrid toll lanes and closed. The traffic capacity of different lanes is different. Different lane combinations are set to adjust the traffic flow of the ramp into the main line. Therefore, this strategy can be regarded as a kind of ramp metering (RM). This paper presents an optimal control method for freeways based on tollbooths lanes configuration and variable speed limit (VSL) control. Firstly, cellular automata model and cell transmission model are used to describe the operation of toll plazas and main line traffic flow respectively. Furthermore, the freeway control methods are constructed by using tollbooths RM (TB-RM) and TB-RM combined with main line VSL control respectively to improve the freeway traffic operation efficiency. Finally, the proposed method is simulated experimentally. Results from simulation experiments demonstrate that the proposed method (i) significantly improves the traffic performance in terms of total time spent savings; (ii) observably enhances driving safety.

Influence Factors of Road Maintenance for the Safety of Road Users on the Jakarta - Tangerang Toll Segment

In an effort to fulfill the Minimum Service Standards (MSS) for toll roads according to the toll road law, all toll road business entities (TRBE) must fulfill them. This includes the Jakarta – Tangerang toll road section. Therefore, routine maintenance and maintenance of roads and facilities is always carried out. So that in toll lanes various maintenance activities are always found, in situations of very congested traffic conditions. And because maintenance activities use road lanes, this has an impact on the safety of toll road users. Data retrieval through questionnaires Phase I and Phase II with data sample collection tools using google form, observation, document collection, all data results will be analyzed using Microsoft excel and multiple linear regression using IBM SPSS version 21. From data analysis, potential factors are obtained. causing an influence on road safety during maintenance is the management of maintenance work, among which the influence is the management of work materials, management of the work environment, management of work equipment, management of work methods, and labor management. While the most dominant factor influencing individually is the management of the work environment. Keywords: factor analysis, effect of maintenance, road user safety.

Estimates of Willingness to Pay and Value of Time for the Dynamic Toll Lanes in Freeway PR-22 in Puerto Rico

Willingness-to-pay measures were estimated for users of the PR-22 Freeway in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. The first dynamic toll lane (DTL) facility in Puerto Rico started operations in 2013 on PR-22. The PR-22 segment examined consists of two reversible express lanes along the median with a dynamic pricing scheme and six general traffic lanes with a fixed toll rate. Willingness-to-pay for the DTL was assessed using the Van Westendorp Price Sensitivity Meter (VWPSM) analysis. Moreover, discrete choice analysis was used to estimate the users’ willingness to pay for travel time savings. The data used in this analysis was obtained through an online survey that presented participants with direct willingness-to-pay questions, toll lane choice scenarios, and, for declared DTL users, questions about their reasons for using the facility. The aggregate analysis of the VWPSM estimated a willingness-to-pay range for the DTL of $1.00 to $2.79, which is lower than the maximum toll rate of $4.95 charged for the managed lane facility. The stated preference scenarios provided a value of time (VOT) estimate of $21.47 per hour. The VOT value is higher than the estimate for local personal travel of $10.00 per hour. There is evidence in support of inflated VOT values for high-occupancy toll lanes and variable toll facilities. Another reasoning could be that PR-22 users overestimated their time savings. Still, the estimated VOT for the PR-22 DTL is relatively low in comparison with other managed lane facilities in the United States.