Differentiated congestion pricing of urban transportation networks with vehicle-tracking technologies

This paper explores a new type of congestion pricing that differentiates users with respect to their travel characteristics or attributes, and charges them different amounts of toll accordingly. The scheme can reduce the financial burden of travelers or lead to more substantial reduction of congestion. Given that the scheme requires tracking vehicles, an incentive program is designed to mitigate travelers’ privacy concerns and entice them to voluntarily disclose their location information.     

US residential charging potential for electric vehicles

We assess existing and potential charging infrastructure for plug-in vehicles in US households using data from the American Housing Survey and the Residential Energy Consumption Survey. We estimate that less than half of US vehicles have reliable access to a dedicated off-street parking space at an owned residence where charging infrastructure could be installed. Specifically, while approximately 79% households have off-street parking for at least some of their vehicles, only an estimated 56% of vehicles have a dedicated off-street parking space – and only 47% at an owned residence. Approximately 22% vehicles currently have access to a dedicated home parking space within reach of an outlet sufficient to recharge a small plug-in vehicle battery pack overnight. Access to faster charging, required for vehicles with longer electric range, will usually require infrastructure investment ranging from several hundred to several thousand dollars, depending on panel and construction requirements. We discuss sensitivity of results to uncertain factors and implications for the potential of mainstream penetration of plug-in vehicles.     

Stockholm congestion charging: an assessment with METROPOLIS and SILVESTER

This paper reviews and compares the performance of two dynamic transportation models – METROPOLIS and SILVESTER – which are used to predict the impacts of congestion charging for Stockholm. Both are mesoscopic dynamic models treating accumulation and dissipation of traffic queues, route choice, modal split and departure time choice. The models are calibrated independently for the baseline situation without charges and applied to forecast the effects of congestion charging. The results obtained from the two models are mutually compared and validated against the actual outcome of the Stockholm congestion charging scheme. Both models successfully predict the outcomes of the congestion charging trial at both aggregate and disaggregate levels. Results of welfare analysis, however, differ substantially due to differences in model specification.     

Why experience changes attitudes to congestion pricing: The case of Gothenburg

Many cities have seen public support for congestion charges increase substantially after charges have been introduced. Several alternative explanations of this phenomenon have been suggested, but so far little evidence has been available to assess the relative importance of these explanations. We study attitudes to congestion pricing in Gothenburg before and after congestion charges were introduced in January 2013. Attitudes to the charges did indeed become more positive after the introduction, just as in previous cities. Using a two-wave postal survey, we separate contributions to the attitude change from a number of sources: benefits and costs being different than anticipated, use of hypothecated revenues, reframing processes, and changes in related attitudes such as attitudes to environment, equity, taxation and pricing measures in general. We conclude that the dominant reason for the attitude change is status quo bias, rather than any substantial changes in beliefs or related attitudes, although some of these factors also contribute. Contrary to a common belief, nothing of the attitude change is due to benefits being larger than anticipated.     

A note on the distortionary effects of revenue-neutral tolls in a bottleneck congestion game

This note demonstrates how the redistribution of revenue from a Pigouvian policy can distort incentives and handicap the social objectives of the policy by creating a moral hazard problem. Based on the Levinson (2005) game theory model, I develop a three-player bottleneck congestion game that emulates a repeated prisoner’s dilemma and derive efficient tolls. This conceptual game demonstrates the distortionary effects from a revenue-neutral toll policy with lump-sum revenue redistribution and the equity-efficiency tradeoff.     

Time-dependent area-based pricing for multimodal systems with heterogeneous users in an agent-based environment

In this paper, we investigate an area-based pricing scheme for congested multimodal urban networks with the consideration of user heterogeneity. We propose a time-dependent pricing scheme where the tolls are iteratively adjusted through a Proportional–Integral type feedback controller, based on the level of vehicular traffic congestion and traveler’s behavioral adaptation to the cost of pricing. The level of congestion is described at the network level by a Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram, which has been recently applied to develop network-level traffic management strategies. Within this dynamic congestion pricing scheme, we differentiate two groups of users with respect to their value-of-time (which related to income levels). We then integrate incentives, such as improving public transport services or return part of the toll to some users, to motivate mode shift and increase the efficiency of pricing and to attain equitable savings for all users. A case study of a medium size network is carried out using an agent-based simulator. The developed pricing scheme demonstrates high efficiency in congestion reduction. Comparing to pricing schemes that utilize similar control mechanisms in literature which do not treat the adaptivity of users, the proposed pricing scheme shows higher flexibility in toll adjustment and a smooth behavioral stabilization in long-term operation. Significant differences in behavioral responses are found between the two user groups, highlighting the importance of equity treatment in the design of congestion pricing schemes. By integrating incentive programs for public transport using the collected toll revenue, more efficient pricing strategies can be developed where savings in travel time outweigh the cost of pricing, achieving substantial welfare gain.     

Analysis of the effect of charging needs on battery electric vehicle drivers’ route choice behaviour: A case study in the Netherlands

Electric travelling appears to dominate the transport sector in the near future due to the needed transition from internal combustion vehicles (ICV) towards Electric Vehicles (EV) to tackle urban pollution. Given this trend, investigation of the EV drivers’ travel behaviour is of great importance to stakeholders including planners and policymakers, for example in order to locate charging stations. This research explores the Battery Electric Vehicle (BEV) drivers route choice and charging preferences through a Stated Preference (SP) survey. Collecting data from 505 EV drivers in the Netherlands, we report the results of estimating a Mixed Logit (ML) model for those choices. Respondents were requested to choose a route among six alternatives: freeways, arterial ways, and local streets with and without fast charging. Our findings suggest that the classic route attributes (travel time and travel cost), vehicle-related variables (state-of-charge at the origin and destination) and charging characteristics (availability of a slow charging point at the destination, fast charging duration, waiting time in the queue of a fast-charging station) can influence the BEV drivers route choice and charging behaviour significantly. When the state-of-charge (SOC) at the origin is high and a slow charger at the destination is available, routes without fast charging are likely to be preferred. Moreover, local streets (associated with slow speeds and less energy consumption) could be preferred if the SOC at the destination is expected to be low while arterial ways might be selected when a driver must recharge his/her car during the trip via fast charging.     

User satisfaction with battery electric vehicles in South Korea

Battery electric vehicles (BEVs) have been promoted by the government over the last several years, driven by public concern over pollutant emissions from internal combustion engines. However, the conditions related to driving BEVs are not yet satisfactory for many BEV users, as evident from sluggish market growth compared with general market forecasts. Thus, a fundamental aspect of diagnosing the current conditions of BEV operation is to evaluate BEV user satisfaction. This study establishes hypothetical links between potential factors and BEV user satisfaction, and between BEV use satisfaction and intention to repurchase and recommend. The hypothetical links are specified using a partial least squares structural equation model (PLS-SEM) and estimated based on a survey of actual BEV owners (N=160) who had driven BEVs for at least six months. The outcomes of PLS-SEM suggest that seven relations out of nine hypothetical links were statistically significant. In particular, it is noticeable that the intention for cost-saving during operation is a key factor for BEV user satisfaction and that user satisfaction with range and charging has a positive effect on the overall satisfaction of BEV users. Furthermore, those who are satisfied with BEVs have the intention to repurchase and recommend BEVs to others. Because this study was conducted based on actual experience of BEV users, the findings could enhance understanding of the BEV driving environment and, thus, pave the way to provision of better service for BEV users.     

新能源汽车消费者充电行为习惯及配套设施使用现状分析

文章主要研究新能源汽车消费者充电习惯和行为特征,并探索不同城市级别、不同意识形态和不同充电设施消费者充电行为差异性.通过分析和对比,挖掘不同新能源汽车消费者充电特点,以及在充电过程中的主要困难和不便,一方面为新能源汽车企业了解消费者充电行为提供参考,另一方面为充电设施的完善和改进提供方向.此外,在分析消费者充电现状的同...     

The corridor problem: Preliminary results on the no-toll equilibrium

Consider a traffic corridor that connects a continuum of residential locations to a point central business district, and that is subject to flow congestion. The population density function along the corridor is exogenous, and except for location vehicles are identical. All vehicles travel along the corridor from home to work in the morning rush hour, and have the same work start-time but may arrive early. The two components of costs are travel time costs and schedule delay (time early) costs. Determining equilibrium and optimum traffic flow patterns for this continuous model, and possible extensions, is termed “The Corridor Problem”. Equilibria must satisfy the trip-timing condition, that at each location no vehicle can experience a lower trip price by departing at a different time. This paper investigates the no-toll equilibrium of the basic Corridor Problem.