Modeling Toll Lanes and Dynamic Pricing Control

TL;DR

This paper develops a dynamic pricing framework for toll lanes, combining supply-side traffic control with demand-side auction-based pricing, tested within a traffic flow model to optimize lane usage and revenue.

Contribution

It introduces a novel integrated toll lane control system with two pricing approaches, including an auction mechanism that directly manages vehicle entry.

Findings

The split ratio controller effectively manages traffic distribution.

The auction-based pricing allows precise control over toll lane occupancy.

The model's equilibrium analysis informs toll lane viability.

Abstract

In this paper we address the problem of dynamic pricing for toll lanes on freeways. The proposed toll mechanism is broken up into two parts: (1) the supply side feedback control that computes the desired split ratios for the incoming traffic flows between the general purpose and the toll lanes; and (2) the demand side price setting algorithm that aims to enforce the computed split ratios. The split ratio controller is designed and tested in the context of the link-node Cell Transmission Model with the modified node model of in/out flow distribution. The equilibrium structure of this traffic model is presented; and the case, in which the existence of a toll lane is meaningful, is discussed. For the price setting, two alternative approaches are presented. The first one is commonly used, and it relies on the known Value of Time (VoT) distribution. Its shortcoming, however, is in the difficulty of the VoT distribution estimation. The second approach employs the auction mechanism, where travelers make bids on places in the toll lane. The advantage of this approach is that it enables direct control over how many vehicles will be allowed into the toll lane.