城市交通拥挤的社会成本分析初探

交通拥挤的社会成本可分为生产成本、使用成本、时间耗费成本及外部成本,本文在定性分析的基础上,对使用成本和时间耗费成本做了定量分析,给出了计算公式,并通过对大连市西南路某路段在拥挤时段的调查,计算出了居民出行时间成本的损失和城市交通使用成本的损失,这一结果可以推广到整条道路或区域路网,从而为城市交通的良性发展和减少经济损失等方面提供了有效的理论依据。     

The tax treatment of company cars, commuting and optimal congestion taxes

In Europe, the preferential tax treatment of company cars implies that many employees receive a company car as part of their compensation package. In this paper, we consider a model in which wages and the decision whether or not to provide a company car are the result of direct negotiation between employer and employee. Using this framework, we theoretically and numerically study first- and second-best optimal tax policies on labour and transport markets, focusing on the role of the tax treatment of company cars. We obtain the following results. First, higher labour taxes and a more favourable tax treatment of company cars raise the fraction employees that receives a company car; congestion and congestion tolls reduce it. Second, in countries that provide large implicit subsidies to company cars, eliminating the preferential tax treatment of company cars may be an imperfect but quite effective substitute for currently unavailable congestion tolls. The numerical illustration, calibrated using Belgian data, suggests that it yields about half the welfare gain attainable through optimal congestion taxes. Third, the favourable tax treatment of company cars justifies large public transport subsidies; the numerical results are consistent with zero public transport fares. Finally, we find that earlier models that ignored the preferential tax treatment of company cars may have substantially underestimated optimal congestion tolls in Europe. The numerical illustration suggests that about one third of the optimal congestion toll we obtain can be attributed to the current tax treatment of company cars.     

Managing network mobility with tradable credits

A system of tradable travel credits is explored in a general network with homogeneous travelers. A social planner is assumed to initially distribute a certain number of travel credits to all eligible travelers, and then there are link-specific charges to travelers using that link. Free trading of credits among travelers is assumed. For a given credit distribution and credit charging scheme, the existence of a unique equilibrium link flow pattern is demonstrated with either fixed or elastic demand. It can be obtained by solving a standard traffic equilibrium model subject to a total credit consumption constraint. The credit price at equilibrium in the trading market is also conditionally unique. The appropriate distribution of credits among travelers and correct selection of link-specific rates is shown to lead to the most desirable network flow patterns in a revenue-neutral manner. Social optimum, Pareto-improving and revenue-neutral, and side-constrained traffic flow patterns are investigated.     

Nonlinear pricing on private roads with congestion and toll collection costs

Nonlinear pricing (a form of second-degree price discrimination) is widely used in transportation and other industries but it has been largely overlooked in the road-pricing literature. This paper explores the incentives for a profit-maximizing toll-road operator to adopt some simple nonlinear pricing schemes when there is congestion and collecting tolls is costly. Users are assumed to differ in their demands to use the road. Regardless of the severity of congestion, an access fee is always profitable to implement either as part of a two-part tariff or as an alternative to paying a toll. Use of access fees for profit maximization can increase or decrease welfare relative to usage-only pricing for profit maximization. Hence a ban on access fees could reduce welfare.     

襄樊汉江一桥交通拥堵原因与解决方案分析

襄樊汉江一桥紧接樊城中心与襄城中心,承载主要城区间交通联系.伴随地区经济发展,机动车保有量逐年上升,交通拥堵成为过江交通的主要特征.从交通中心、医疗资源中心、商业中心分布等角度探讨了交通拥堵原因.最后从交通组织与控制,职能外迁及路面工程角度提出了改善拥堵行为的解决方案.     

Variable guidance for pedestrian evacuation considering congestion,hazard, and compliance behavior

A methodology for optimizing variable pedestrian evacuation guidance in buildings with convex polygonal interior spaces is proposed. The optimization of variable guidance is a bi-level problem. The calculation of variable guidance based on the prediction of congestion and hazards is the upper-level problem. The prediction of congestion provided the variable guidance is the lower-level problem. A local search procedure is developed to solve the problem. The proposed methodology has three major contributions. First, a logistic regression model for guidance compliance behavior is calibrated using a virtual reality experiment and the critical factors for the behavior are identified. Second, the guidance compliance and following behaviors are considered in the lower-level problem. Third, benchmarks are calculated to evaluate the performance of optimized variable guidance, including the lower bound of the maximum evacuation time and the maximum evacuation time under a fixed guidance. Finally, the proposed methodology is validated with numerical examples. Results show that the method has the potential to reduce evacuation time in emergencies.     

Quantitative analysis of probe data characteristics: Coverage,speed bias and congestion detection precision

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a growing desire for the use of probe vehicle technology for congestion detection and general infrastructure performance assessment. Unlike costly traditional data collection by loop detectors, wide area detection using probe-based traffic data is significantly different in terms of the nature of data collection, measurement technique, coverage, pricing, and so on. Although many researches have studied probe-based data, there remains critical questions such as data coverage and penetration over time, or the influential factors in the accuracy of probe data. This research studied probe-sourced data from INRIX, to profoundly explore some of these questions. First, to explore coverage and penetration, INRIX real-time data was illustrated temporally over the entire state of Iowa, demonstrating the growth in real-time data over a 4-year timespan. Furthermore, the availability of INRIX real-time and historical data based on type of road and time of day, were explored. Second, a comparison was made with Wavetronix smart sensors, commonly used sensors in traffic management, to explore INRIX’s speed data quality. A statistical analysis on the behavior of INRIX speed bias, identified some of the influential factors in defining the magnitude of speed bias. Finally, the accuracy and reliability of INRIX for congestion detection purposes was investigated based on the road segment characteristics and the congestion type. Overall, this work sheds light onto some of the less explored aspects of INRIX probe-based data to help traffic managers and decision makers in better understanding this source of data and any resultant analyses.