Toll Rates Research Articles

Parking Management Efficiency Analysis through Various Charge Schemes for Day-Long Commuting considering Elastic Travel Demand

In this paper, we investigate the travel pattern of the day-long commuting in a bisection bottleneck network and the efficiency of pricing schemes with elastic travel demand. We extend the Vickrey model to morning and evening commutes and allow commuters to arrive at workplace late and depart from workplace early. The parking searching time is considered in the morning commute. Next, we derive the independent morning and evening commuting travel patterns without road toll and parking fee. Then, we propose three pricing regimes: duration dependent parking fees; optimal time-varying road tolls; optimal time-varying road tolls with duration dependent parking fees. We compare the efficiency of the four schemes with elastic demand. Theoretical analysis and the numerical examples show that optimal time-varying road toll is the most efficient pricing scheme. Charging a duration dependent fee neither improves nor deteriorates the scheme of time-varying road toll, if the toll rates are appropriately set. The regime of duration dependent parking fee only is less efficient than the regime of independent morning and evening commuting travel patterns without road toll and parking fee. In the regime of duration dependent parking fee, the social surplus decreases with the increase of duration dependent parking fee rate.

Traffic Allocation Mode of PPP Highway Project: A Risk Management Approach

Highway projects are the favorites of public‐private partnership (PPP) investors because of their stable cash flow. However, there are high uncertainties in terms of traffic volume, resulting in unpredictable revenues, which has drawn major concern of PPP investors. For a road in a network, the traffic volume is determined by the traffic allocation rate, which is affected not only by the total traffic volume in the region but also by other traffic risk factors, such as travel time, toll rates, and travelling comfort. The conventional traffic allocation forecasting technique predominantly depends on the travel time, overlooking other risk factors. Consequently, traffic allocation forecasting is usually inaccurate. To improve the accuracy of traffic allocation forecasting in PPP road projects, this paper proposes to consider the effect of traffic risks together with traffic time by using the mean utility. Multinomial logit (MNL) model based on mean utility is used to predict the traffic allocation rate. To validate the proposed model, the system dynamic (SD) modeling is established to forecast the traffic volume of a case highway using the proposed traffic allocation forecasting model. The simulated result shows that the simulated traffic volume of past years from the proposed model is highly consistent with the actual one, evidencing that the proposed model can greatly improve the accuracy of the traffic forecasting.

Bi-level programming model of truck congestion pricing at container terminals

Port traffic network design is different from urban traffic flow. Port truck congestion, one of the critical port traffic network design problems, is discussed in this paper. To alleviate the truck congestion in container terminals, issues of modeling truck congestion pricing are addressed. A bi-level programming model is developed to determine the optimal toll rates. The upper level model is to minimize the average truck waiting time by optimizing toll rates of different periods. The lower level is user equilibrium model in which each truck driver chooses its arrival time according to the toll strategy of upper level model. The feedback of upper-level and lower-level model forms the optimal toll strategy. To solve the model, a method based on memetic heuristic is designed. Finally, numerical experiments are provided to illustrate the validity of the proposed model and algorithm. Results indicate that congestion toll can decrease truck’s queuing time effectively. The developed toll pricing model reflects the benefit of truckers and terminal operators, which promotes the use of toll as an efficient tool to alleviate the truck congestion and improve the terminal efficiency.

Logit and probit model in toll sensitivity analysis of Solo-Ngawi, Kartasura-Palang Joglo segment based on Willingness to Pay (WTP)

Solo-Ngawi toll road project is part of the mega project of the Trans Java toll road development initiated by the government and is still under construction until now. PT Solo Ngawi Jaya (SNJ) as the Solo-Ngawi toll management company needs to determine the toll fare that is in accordance with the business plan. The determination of appropriate toll rates will affect progress in regional economic sustainability and decrease the traffic congestion. These policy instruments is crucial for achieving environmentally sustainable transport. Therefore, the objective of this research is to find out how the toll fare sensitivity of Solo-Ngawi toll road based on Willingness To Pay (WTP). Primary data was obtained by distributing stated preference questionnaires to four wheeled vehicle users in Kartasura-Palang Joglo artery road segment. Further data obtained will be analysed with logit and probit model. Based on the analysis, it is found that the effect of fare change on the amount of WTP on the binomial logit model is more sensitive than the probit model on the same travel conditions. The range of tariff change against values of WTP on the binomial logit model is 20% greater than the range of values in the probit model . On the other hand, the probability results of the binomial logit model and the binary probit have no significant difference (less than 1%).

Accounting for travel time reliability, trip purpose and departure time choice in an agent‐based dynamic toll pricing approach

This study introduces an agent-based dynamic feedback-control toll pricing strategy that accounts for the trip purpose, travel time reliability, departure time choice and level of income such that the toll revenue is maximised while maintaining a minimum desired level of service on the managed lanes. An agent-based modelling was applied to simulate drivers’ learning process based on their previous commuting experience. The study also analysed how drivers’ heterogeneity in value of time, and value of reliability for each trip purpose will influence route decisions and thus affect the optimal toll rates. Comparative evaluation between the newly developed strategy, the strategy currently deployed on Interstate 95 express lanes, and another strategy previously developed by the authors shows that the agent-based strategy produced a steadier increase in toll rate during the peak hours and a significantly higher toll revenue at speeds higher than 45 mph.

Auction-based tolling systems in a connected and automated vehicles environment: Public opinion and implications for toll revenue and capacity utilization

Autonomous and connected vehicles are expected to enable new tolling mechanisms, such as auction-based tolls, for allocating the limited roadway capacity. This research examines the public perception of futuristic auction-based tolling systems, with a focus on the public acceptance of such systems over current tolling practices on highways (e.g., dynamic and fixed tolling methodologies). Through a stated-preference survey, responses from 159 road-users residing in Virginia are elicited to understand route choice behavior under a descending price auction implemented on a hypothetical two-route network. Analysis of the survey data shows that there is no outright rejection of the presented auction-based tolling among those who are familiar with the current tolling methods. While males strongly support the new method, no clear pattern emerges among other demographic variables such as income and education level, and age. While high income respondents and regular commuters are more likely to pay higher tolls, no statistical significance between different genders, age groups, household sizes, and education levels is found. Based on the modeling results and the hypothetical road network, it is found that descending price tolling method yields higher average toll rates, and generates at least 70% more revenue when travel time saving is 30min, and improves capacity utilization of the toll road significantly compared to fixed tolls.

Optimal Time-Varying Pricing for Toll Roads Under Multiple Objectives: A Simulation-Based Optimization Approach

The determination of the pricing for tolled facilities always involves consideration of multiple objectives, e.g., efficiency, safety, pollution, reliability, and economy. Simulations are widely used to evaluate the performance of transportation systems as to the various objectives in response to different travel demand management policies. However, transportation simulation is usually associated with high computation costs and non-closed-form objective functions. This paper builds a simulation based optimization framework, and uses surrogate models to approximate the true simulation function. A significant amount of computation time can be saved with this method. To solve real world application problems, we develop infill strategies for multiobjective and constrained optimization problems. Using DynusT as the simulator, we optimize the toll rates for a five-segment toll road in Maryland, and successfully update the Pareto front based on initial samples for the multiobjective optimization problem. The method works even more efficiently for the constrained optimization problem. By adjusting the toll rates for the five segments, the network-wide average travel time can be reduced by 20% compared to the currently implemented toll scheme: A total of 22,250 hours can be saved in travel time for all network users in the three-hour morning peak period. Also, the toll revenue is increased by 50% compared to the baseline case.

Optimal Dynamic Tolls for Managed Lanes

This paper presents a real-time simulation-based control framework to determine dynamic toll rates to optimize an operator's objective subject to various operational and contractual constraints, such as smooth toll rate changes and maintenance of prescribed levels of service on the toll lane. The toll-setting system incorporates models to predict both the vehicle arrival process upstream of the toll lane facility and drivers’ choice whether to use the toll lanes as a function of the toll rate and travel times presented to drivers within the information system. A macroscopic traffic simulation model is used to predict the flow conditions within the prediction horizon. The travel times provided to users as information and the travel times predicted by the traffic flow model are iterated until consistency between them is obtained. The whole process is embedded within an optimization algorithm that sets tolls to optimize a given objective function. Several case studies demonstrate the use of this framework and its potential to provide useful toll settings.

Probabilistic Approach to Evaluate Acceptable Toll Rates in Road Concessions

Countries worldwide make substantial efforts to keep the condition of their road infrastructure at an acceptable level under budgetary constraints. One possible model that enables the delivery of road projects under limited budgets is a public–private partnership (PPP). Because of several technical, financial, legal, and economic issues that need to be addressed, PPP agreements are relatively complex. In addition, defining long-term rights and obligations between the public sector and the private concessionaire requires an in-depth risk analysis because of the considerable number of risks usually encountered in PPP projects, such as a toll road concession. The objective of this paper is to present a method for an ex ante assessment of the acceptable toll rate for different stakeholders based on a probabilistic analysis of construction costs, operations and maintenance costs, and traffic volumes. The financial constraints included in the analysis are the debt service coverage ratio and return on equity. The resulting toll rates are determined from the simulated probability distributions of the input parameters. Such rates are then compared with the socially acceptable toll rate. The application of the proposed method to a case study of a toll road concession in Greece for which publicly available data were obtained indicates that the method presented is able to capture some uncertainties and improve the project’s risk quantification process. It is recommended that the proposed method be tested on other projects for further validation and eventual upgrading of the model for use as a tool in risk management in toll road concessions.

Evaluating the Potential Economic Efficiency of Project Delivery Options

This paper illustrates a comparison of the incremental costs and benefits of alternative delivery options for highway projects that used the FHWA's P3-VALUE analytic tool for much of the computation. The hypothetical example project consists of ( a) upgrading an urban freeway with added express toll lanes, ( b) possibly delivering the project via a public–private partnership concession, ( c) possibly transferring the revenue risk back to the public agency via availability payments (APs), and ( d) possibly substituting a hybrid payment mechanism that compensates the operator with a fixed AP plus shadow tolls paid on the basis of person throughput. Under the hybrid payment mechanism, the concessionaire would continue to set toll rates to ensure efficient operations (as under a normal toll concession), but all toll revenue would go to the public agency, as in an AP concession. The multipart payment strategy would potentially restore incentives for ensuring optimal utilization of the facility. The goal is to maximize economic efficiency, which is assessed by using benefit– cost analysis. The evaluation explores the conditions under which the features considered would be incrementally beneficial.

Application of Traffic Thermostat for I-30 Managed Lanes in Dallas, Texas

Managed lanes have historically experienced an evolution in operational policies. Over time, speeds on a managed lane may degrade because of oversubscribed demand. Operators have strategies to mitigate problems and maintain optimal performance; these strategies include changing the occupancy requirement, varying tolls (if the facility is priced), and altering transit service. Assessing the potential impact of operational strategies is a challenge. The traffic thermostat tool is a software-based guide that helps select specific strategies projected to influence the metrics for each goal. This paper reports on how the tool was adapted for use on the I-30 managed lanes in Dallas, Texas, a high-occupancy-toll lane with reduced toll rates for qualifying carpools. An example scenario shows the consideration of travel speed and throughput goals, with acceptable performance thresholds of 50 mph and 5,700 persons per hour for the entire facility. The thermostat estimated values of projected speed and throughput for selected operational fixes by using the calibrated speed–flow relationship from the regional travel demand model. Results from a quantitative travel survey helped to derive mode shift elasticities for use by the tool. Overall, the dynamic nature of demand, diversity of user groups, ambiguity with exogenous factors (e.g., regional unemployment and fuel prices), and need for extensive data on the lanes led to uncertainty and difficulty with prediction capability. However, use of the traffic thermostat can show policy makers and others the inherent challenge of performance management for managed-lane facilities.

Determining the asset value and average depreciation key of a tolled road network

In the framework of the first revision of toll rates calculated before the launch of the HU-GO truck toll collection system in Hungary, in July 2013, the re-determination of the infrastructure costs related to the tolled road network became necessary. Replacement costs of the main road components (considered as being a substitute of asset values) were to be calculated using the so called Synthetic Method, since the net asset values of the tolled road networks weren’t recorded separately in the books of the national road administration. Basic assumptions as well as main steps and results of the calculation of replacement cost (asset value), as well as of the average depreciation key are presented and some relevant conclusions are formulated.

Impact of electronic road pricing (ERP) changes on transport modal choice

This paper analyzes the effect of periodical congestion toll rate adjustment on the change of commuters' transport modal choice in Singapore's context. Among several alternatives that commuters can choose when they face increase of congestion tax, this study specifically tests the impact on the modal change to public bus transportation. This study finds that commuters switch to public bus services by 12% to 20% in the morning hours after S$1 increase and by approximately 10% in the evening after toll adjustment of S$0.50 to S$1.00 in the affected gantry area compared to the counterfactual through difference-in-difference method. Also, we find that the increase in bus ridership has long-lived effect at least within two months and commuters from area with lower income level respond more to the toll increase. When we repeat the same test for robustness with arbitrary time slot during which the toll is not levied, we find no significant modal change. Other confounding factors from macro-economic standpoint and service quality cannot explain the results as the modal change occurred in short period within specific area and time. We also find that commuters from low income area respond more to the toll rate adjustment.

A pickup and delivery problem for ridesharing considering congestion

Traffic congestion is a significant social concern that is credited with considerable economic costs, wasted time, and associated public health risks. Efficient ridesharing solutions could help mitigate congestion. Some of the actions that government agencies have taken to encourage ridesharing include the availability of high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes and existing policies of discounted toll rates on HOVs. These measures encourage ridesharing by reducing costs or travel times of such trips. To study how the optimal routes change as a function of incentives for ridesharing, we modified existing pickup and delivery problems with time windows to consider changes in passenger travel time and toll cost due to vehicle load. Our computational results explore how the total route cost and time are affected by the use of HOV lanes and toll savings. In addition, our results show that it can be beneficial from a time and cost perspective to take detours to pick up additional passengers and use HOV lanes when the time saving on HOV lanes is significant.

Maximizing toll revenue and level of service on managed lanes with a dynamic feedback-control toll pricing strategy

In recent years, congestion pricing emerged as a cost-effective and efficient strategy to mitigate congestion on freeways. This study develops a dynamic toll pricing strategy based on feedback control rules and compares its performance with the current strategy deployed on the I-95 express lanes in south Florida. The proposed strategy aims to maximize the toll revenue while maintaining a minimum desirable level of service on the managed lanes. A detailed numerical example is provided to demonstrate how the proposed strategy works and the performance is examined for low and high traffic demand. An external module is developed to execute the strategy in real time during VISSIM runtime. The impact of the value of time based on the income level is also examined. Three values in the range of 60% to 120% of the mean hourly income are used. The results show that for high demand, an increase in the probability of choosing managed lanes becomes more evident, with the highest increase observed for the case of 120%. Also, during high traffic demand, high income groups exhibit higher probabilities of choosing the managed lanes despite the increase in toll rate due to the increase in travel time savings. When compared to the currently adopted toll pricing strategy on I-95, the proposed strategy shows a steadier toll rate profile and a greater overall toll revenue, while maintaining the speed at nearly 72.4 kph (45 mph).

An Analysis of Express Lanes in Utah

This paper reports on an analysis conducted to identify ways to improve average speeds in the Express Lanes (ELs) in Utah. The research began with an investigation of the current usage of both the ELs and the General Purpose (GP) lanes by user type (e.g., single-occupant vehicle, high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) 2, HOV 3+, “C” decal, Express Pass user, motorcycle, bus, freight vehicle, and emergency vehicle) to better understand the breakdown of vehicles in the lanes and to calculate average vehicle occupancy. Violation data were examined to determine ways to reduce violator rates, while ways to control Express Pass traffic and to evaluate changes to toll rates and to estimate the impacts on speed of specific toll increases along the corridor were explored. The data collected were examined to better understand the speed-flow relationship on the ELs and to estimate the impact of volume changes on speeds in the lanes. This allowed the research team to estimate the impact on EL and GP lane volumes and speeds under a combination of EL education campaigns, increased EL enforcement, and increased EL peak period toll rates. Depending on the scenario analyzed, it was determined that the speeds in the ELs could be expected to increase as a result of the recommendations. The increase was found to be dependent upon the scenario chosen and the response of the traffic to the increases with an average maximum change in EL speed of 7.8 mph for a combination of education, enforcement, and increased tolls.

Determination of the Transit Fee for Mongla-Ghasiakhali Canal: Savings from the Daily Running Cost of Ships

MG (Mongla-Ghasiakhali) Canal, a man-made canal that connects the southwestern part of Bangladesh, is one of the industrial zones where the second largest seaport, the Mongla seaport, and two inland river ports are situated. The Government of Bangladesh maintained the canal since it was opening in 1973. From 2010, the maintenance excavation of the canal was postponed because the rate of siltation was higher than the excavation works allocated for it. Paucity of budget was the main reason as the return from the canal was too low to recover the minimum part of the budget. The objective of the present study is to determine the minimum tool rate based on the savings by the vessels operator who will use the canal. At present, almost all types of goods are transported through the waterway canal inside the largest single block of the tidal halophytic mangrove forest in the world, Sundarban (a United Nations heritage) and that causes serious environmental problems and threats to the biodiversity of the forest. Therefore, utilization of the MG Canal will not only be an alternative waterway network for transporting of goods but also reduce the voyage length. To determine the minimum toll rate, several government agencies of Bangladesh and operators have been contacted to collect the data both quantitatively and qualitatively. Real-time data has been used for calculating the minimum standard tool rate.

Evaluating Various Road Ownership Structures and Potential Competition on an Urban Road Network

Fundamental changes in road ownership and pricing have been viewed as possible remedies for the road usage and funding challenges in the transportation sector. To fill the gaps in our knowledge about the choice among different ownership structures, we develop a multi-level programming model that integrates system performance and profit maximization, game theory, and modified traffic assignment sub-models. Using this model, we provide a set of policy insights for policy makers. First, toll roads are interdependent in a complex manner since some pairs of roads are substitutes and others are complements, and because such cross effects can be reversed in different time periods and under different own and cross toll rates. Second, each toll road’s profit generally increases when more roads are tolled since roads commonly act as substitutes to each other. With such an insight, policy makers can ensure higher (and/or less risky) profits from toll roads and better deals with private operators of toll roads. Third, a mixture of private and public toll roads could generate significant profits while reducing transportation costs dramatically, thus contributing to sustainability. Finally, a comprehensive long-run transportation plan must investigate various road ownership schemes and examine their impacts on the profitability and the performance of the transportation system as a whole.

Impact of electronic road pricing on real estate prices in Singapore

Since 1998, Singapore has had an Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system set up with a network of toll gantries to tax vehicles entering designated areas in the city center during peak hours. Using the congestion rate hike with effect from November 1, 2010 as an exogenous shock, we test the effects of the ERP rate hike on retail, office and residential real estate prices. The results show that the November 2010 congestion toll rate increases cause a 19% drop in retail real estate prices within the cordon ERP areas relative to retail real estate prices outside the cordon ERP areas. The results are statistically and economically significant. However, the toll rate hike has no significant impact private office and residential real estate within cordoned ERP areas. The robustness and falsification tests could not reject the negative effects associated with the toll rate hike on retail real estate prices.

Congestion Externalities: Impact of Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) Charges on Real Estate Prices in Singapore

Since 1998, Singapore has had an Electronic Road Pricing (ERP) system set up with a network of toll gantries to tax vehicles entering designated areas in the city center during peak hours. Using the congestion rate hike with effect from November 1, 2010 as an exogenous shock, we test the effects of the ERP rate hike on retail, office and residential real estate prices. The results show that the November 2010 congestion toll rate increases cause a 19% drop in retail real estate prices within the cordon ERP areas relative to retail real estate prices outside the cordon ERP areas. The results are statistically and economically significant. However, the toll rate hike has no significant impact private office and residential real estate within cordoned ERP areas. The robustness and falsification tests could not reject the negative effects associated with the toll rate hike on retail real estate prices.