IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ortrsc/v34y2000i3p303-311.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A Pareto Improving Strategy for the Time-Dependent Morning Commute Problem

Author

Listed:
  • Carlos F. Daganzo

    (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720-1720)

  • Reinaldo C. Garcia

    (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and Institute of Transportation Studies, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720-1720)

Abstract

This research shows that certain time-dependent congestion reduction schemes involving tolls have the potential for benefiting every driver even if the collected revenues are not returned to the payers. The paper considers a population of commuters who use a single bottleneck during the morning rush hour and try to arrive at work on time. It is assumed that the number of commuters is fixed (independent of the control strategy) and that each commuter wishes to pass through the bottleneck at a given time, which may differ across commuters. Commuters are otherwise identical. Each of them chooses his/her arrival time at the bottleneck so as to minimize a linear combination of monetary cost (tolls), queuing time, and deviation from the desired passage time. A time-dependent toll is applied during a time window, but some commuters are exempted from paying it. Every day, each commuter is classified as either “free” or “paying.” The classification method is such that, in the long-run, the fraction of days, f, that a commuter is free is the same for all commuters, and the fraction of free commuters is f every day. Free commuters are allowed to use the bottleneck without paying the toll, whereas paying commuters can avoid the toll only if they pass through the bottleneck outside the time window. It is shown that, if commuters wish to pass through the bottleneck close together, then the toll, the window, and the fraction of free commuters can be chosen in a way that will benefit everyone by inducing an equilibrium where the “peak is smoothed out” in a particular way. Up to 25% of the total user cost can be eliminated in this way.

Suggested Citation

  • Carlos F. Daganzo & Reinaldo C. Garcia, 2000. "A Pareto Improving Strategy for the Time-Dependent Morning Commute Problem," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 34(3), pages 303-311, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ortrsc:v:34:y:2000:i:3:p:303-311
    DOI: 10.1287/trsc.34.3.303.12296
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/trsc.34.3.303.12296
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/trsc.34.3.303.12296?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vickrey, William S, 1969. "Congestion Theory and Transport Investment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(2), pages 251-260, May.
    2. Carlos F. Daganzo, 1985. "The Uniqueness of a Time-dependent Equilibrium Distribution of Arrivals at a Single Bottleneck," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(1), pages 29-37, February.
    3. Michael J. Smith, 1984. "The Existence of a Time-Dependent Equilibrium Distribution of Arrivals at a Single Bottleneck," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 18(4), pages 385-394, November.
    4. Daganzo, Carlos F., 1995. "A pareto optimum congestion reduction scheme," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 139-154, April.
    5. Small, Kenneth A, 1982. "The Scheduling of Consumer Activities: Work Trips," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(3), pages 467-479, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yu Nie, 2015. "A New Tradable Credit Scheme for the Morning Commute Problem," Networks and Spatial Economics, Springer, vol. 15(3), pages 719-741, September.
    2. Nie, Yu (Marco) & Yin, Yafeng, 2013. "Managing rush hour travel choices with tradable credit scheme," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 1-19.
    3. Carrion, Carlos & Levinson, David, 2012. "Value of travel time reliability: A review of current evidence," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 46(4), pages 720-741.
    4. Shen, Wei & Zhang, H.M., 2010. "Pareto-improving ramp metering strategies for reducing congestion in the morning commute," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 44(9), pages 676-696, November.
    5. Nikolas Geroliminis & David M. Levinson, 2009. "Cordon Pricing Consistent with the Physics of Overcrowding," Springer Books, in: William H. K. Lam & S. C. Wong & Hong K. Lo (ed.), Transportation and Traffic Theory 2009: Golden Jubilee, chapter 0, pages 219-240, Springer.
    6. Zhu, Zheng & Li, Xinwei & Liu, Wei & Yang, Hai, 2019. "Day-to-day evolution of departure time choice in stochastic capacity bottleneck models with bounded rationality and various information perceptions," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 168-192.
    7. Chen, Hongyu & Liu, Yang & Nie, Yu (Marco), 2015. "Solving the step-tolled bottleneck model with general user heterogeneity," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 81(P1), pages 210-229.
    8. Liu, Yang & Nie, Yu (Marco) & Hall, Jonathan, 2015. "A semi-analytical approach for solving the bottleneck model with general user heterogeneity," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 71(C), pages 56-70.
    9. Ramadurai, Gitakrishnan & Ukkusuri, Satish V. & Zhao, Jinye & Pang, Jong-Shi, 2010. "Linear complementarity formulation for single bottleneck model with heterogeneous commuters," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 44(2), pages 193-214, February.
    10. Nicolas Coulombel & André De Palma, 2014. "Variability of Travel Time, Congestion, and the Cost of Travel," Mathematical Population Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(4), pages 220-242, December.
    11. Lago, Alejandro & Daganzo, Carlos F., 2007. "Spillovers, merging traffic and the morning commute," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 670-683, July.
    12. Ren-Yong Guo & Hai Yang & Hai-Jun Huang, 2018. "Are We Really Solving the Dynamic Traffic Equilibrium Problem with a Departure Time Choice?," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 52(3), pages 603-620, June.
    13. Xiaojuan Yu & Vincent van den Berg & Erik Verhoef, 2019. "Autonomous cars and dynamic bottleneck congestion revisited: how in-vehicle activities determine aggregate travel patterns," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 19-067/VIII, Tinbergen Institute.
    14. Li, Zhi-Chun & Huang, Hai-Jun & Yang, Hai, 2020. "Fifty years of the bottleneck model: A bibliometric review and future research directions," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 311-342.
    15. Sun, Jian & Wu, Jiyan & Xiao, Feng & Tian, Ye & Xu, Xiangdong, 2020. "Managing bottleneck congestion with incentives," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 134(C), pages 143-166.
    16. Robin Lindsey, 2004. "Existence, Uniqueness, and Trip Cost Function Properties of User Equilibrium in the Bottleneck Model with Multiple User Classes," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 38(3), pages 293-314, August.
    17. Daniel, Joseph I, 1995. "Congestion Pricing and Capacity of Large Hub Airports: A Bottleneck Model with Stochastic Queues," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 63(2), pages 327-370, March.
    18. Liu, Yang & Nie, Yu (Marco), 2011. "Morning commute problem considering route choice, user heterogeneity and alternative system optima," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 45(4), pages 619-642.
    19. Braid, Ralph M., 2018. "Partial peak-load pricing of a transportation bottleneck with homogeneous and heterogeneous values of time," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 16(C), pages 29-41.
    20. Ling-Ling Xiao & Hai-Jun Huang & Ronghui Liu, 2015. "Congestion Behavior and Tolls in a Bottleneck Model with Stochastic Capacity," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 49(1), pages 46-65, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:ortrsc:v:34:y:2000:i:3:p:303-311. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.