A dynamic cordon pricing scheme combining a macroscopic and an agent-based traffic models
Open access
Date
2011Type
- Working Paper
ETH Bibliography
yes
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Abstract
Pricing is considered an effective management policy to reduce traffic congestion in transportation networks. This paper combines a macroscopic modeling of traffic congestion in urban networks with an agent-based simulator to study congestion pricing schemes. The macroscopic model, which has been tested with real data in previous studies, represents an accurate and robust approach to model the dynamics of congestion. The agent-based simulator can represent the complexity of travel behavior in terms of departure time choice and heterogeneous users. While traditional traffic simulators (including car-following, lane-changing and route choice models) consider traffic demand as input, i.e. inelastic to level of congestion conditions. On the other hand, most of traditional congestion pricing models, utilize a network supply curve which is not consistent with the physics of traffic and the dynamics of congestion, as they are sensitive to demand fluctuations and non-stationary conditions. Also, many of the existing pricing models are assuming deterministic and homogeneous population characteristics. In this paper, we first demonstrate by case studies in Zurich urban road network, that the output of a multi-agent based simulator, is consistent with the physics of traffic flow dynamics, as expressed by a macroscopic fundamental diagram (MFD). We then apply a dynamic cordon-based congestion pricing scheme, in which tolls are controlled by an MFD, and investigate the effectiveness of the proposed pricing scheme. Results show that by applying such a congestion pricing, (i) the savings of travel time at both aggregated and disaggregated level outweighs the costs, (ii) the congestion inside cordon is eased while no congestion is shifted to outside cordon, (iii) during toll period, fewer work-related activities shift starting time than leisure-related activities do; while the impact of toll is more significant in the evening than morning. Future work can apply the same methodology to other network-based pricing schemes. Equity issues can be investigated more carefully, if provided with data such as income of agents. Time-dependent or value-of-time-dependent pricing schemes then can also be determined. Show more
Permanent link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-a-006567757Publication status
publishedJournal / series
Arbeitsberichte Verkehrs- und RaumplanungPublisher
IVT, ETH ZurichSubject
VERKEHRSMODELLE + VERKEHRSSIMULATION (VERKEHR UND TRANSPORT); MOBILITY PRICING (TRANSPORTATION AND TRAFFIC); MOBILITY PRICING (VERKEHR UND TRANSPORT); TRANSPORT MODELS + TRAFFIC SIMULATION (TRANSPORTATION AND TRAFFIC); ZÜRICH, STADT (KANTON ZÜRICH); ZURICH, CITY (CANTON OF ZURICH); URBAN TRANSPORT PLANNING (TRANSPORTATION AND TRAFFIC); STADTVERKEHR + STADTVERKEHRSPLANUNG (VERKEHR UND TRANSPORT)Organisational unit
03521 - Axhausen, Kay W. (emeritus) / Axhausen, Kay W. (emeritus)
02226 - NSL - Netzwerk Stadt und Landschaft / NSL - Network City and Landscape
02655 - Netzwerk Stadt u. Landschaft ARCH u BAUG / Network City and Landscape ARCH and BAUG
Related publications and datasets
Is original form of: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/48525
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yes
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