Traffic Congestion Pricing Methods and Technologies

This paper reviews the methods and technologies for congestion pricing of roads. Congestion tolls can be implemented at scales ranging from individual lanes on single links to national road networks. Tolls can be differentiated by time of day, road type and vehicle characteristics, and even set in real time according to current traffic conditions. Conventional toll booths have largely given way to electronic toll collection technologies. The main technology categories are roadside-only systems employing digital photography, tag and beacon systems that use short-range microwave technology, and in vehicle-only systems based on either satellite or cellular network communications. The best technology choice depends on the application. The rate at which congestion pricing is implemented, and its ultimate scope, will depend on what technology is used and on what other functions and services it can perform. Since congestion pricing calls for the greatest overall degree of toll differentiation, congestion pricing is likely to drive the technology choice.Road pricing; Congestion pricing; Electronic Toll Collection technology

Issues Related to the Emergence of the Information Superhighway and California Societal Changes, IISTPS Report 96-4

The Norman Y. Mineta International Institute for Surface Transportation Policy Studies (IISTPS) at San José State University (SJSU) conducted this project to review the continuing development of the Internet and the Information Superhighway. Emphasis was placed on an examination of the impact on commuting and working patterns in California, and an analysis of how public transportation agencies, including Caltrans, might take advantage of the new communications technologies. The document reviews the technology underlying the current Internet “structure” and examines anticipated developments. It is important to note that much of the research for this limited-scope project was conducted during 1995, and the topic is so rapidly evolving that some information is almost automatically “dated.” The report also examines how transportation agencies are basically similar in structure and function to other business entities, and how they can continue to utilize the emerging technologies to improve internal and external communications. As part of a detailed discussion of specific transportation agency functions, it is noted that the concept of a “Roundtable Forum,” growing out of developments in Concurrent Engineering, can provide an opportunity for representatives from multiple jurisdictions to utilize the Internet for more coordinated decision-making. The report also included an extensive analysis of demographic trends in California in recent years, such as commute and recreational activities, and identifies how the emerging technologies may impact future changes

Regional Data Archiving and Management for Northeast Illinois

This project studies the feasibility and implementation options for establishing a regional data archiving system to help monitor and manage traffic operations and planning for the northeastern Illinois region. It aims to provide a clear guidance to the regional transportation agencies, from both technical and business perspectives, about building such a comprehensive transportation information system. Several implementation alternatives are identified and analyzed. This research is carried out in three phases. In the first phase, existing documents related to ITS deployments in the broader Chicago area are summarized, and a thorough review is conducted of similar systems across the country. Various stakeholders are interviewed to collect information on all data elements that they store, including the format, system, and granularity. Their perception of a data archive system, such as potential benefits and costs, is also surveyed. In the second phase, a conceptual design of the database is developed. This conceptual design includes system architecture, functional modules, user interfaces, and examples of usage. In the last phase, the possible business models for the archive system to sustain itself are reviewed. We estimate initial capital and recurring operational/maintenance costs for the system based on realistic information on the hardware, software, labor, and resource requirements. We also identify possible revenue opportunities. A few implementation options for the archive system are summarized in this report; namely: 1. System hosted by a partnering agency 2. System contracted to a university 3. System contracted to a national laboratory 4. System outsourced to a service provider The costs, advantages and disadvantages for each of these recommended options are also provided.ICT-R27-22published or submitted for publicationis peer reviewe

Congestion Relief: Assessing the Case for Road Tolls in Canada

Experience with road pricing generally — and congestion pricing specifically — is growing around the world. Research and planning in Canada should begin now on road pricing for heavily congested highways and streets.road pricing, traffic congestion

The Calibration And Verification Of Simulation Models For Toll Plazas

A great deal of research has been conducted on Central Florida toll roads to better understand the characteristics of the tolling operation. In this thesis, the development and calibration of a toll plaza simulation models will be analyzed using two simulation programs varying mostly in their modeling theory. The two models utilized are, SHAKER, a deterministic queuing model for vehicles utilizing toll collection facilities, and VISSIM, a globally popular stochastic simulation software. The benefits of simulation models leads to the purpose of this thesis, which is to examine the effectiveness of two toll modeling programs that are similar in purpose but vary in approach and methodology. Both SHAKER and VISSIM toll plaza models have the potential to work as a tool that can estimate the maximum throughput and capacity of toll plazas. Major operational benefits resulting from developing these models are to simulate and evaluate how traffic conditions will change when demand increases, when and if queues increase when a lane is closed due to maintenance or construction, the impact of constructing additional lanes, or determining whether or not the best lane type configuration is currently implemented. To effectively calibrate any model available site data must be used to compare simulation results to for model validity. In an effort to correctly calibrate the SHAKER toll plaza tool and VISSIM model, an extensive field collection procedure was conducted at four Florida Turnpike operated toll facilities located in Central Florida. Each site differed from the others in terms of number of lanes, lane configuration, toll base fee, highway location, traffic demand, and vehicle percentage. The sites chosen for data collection were: the Lake Jesup Mainline Plaza along the Seminole Expressway (SR-417), the Beachline West Expressway Toll Plaza along the SR-528, the Daniel Webster Western Beltway Plaza along SR-429, and the Leesburg Toll Plaza along the Florida Turnpike Mainline SR-91. Upon completion of calibration of the two simulation models it is determined that each of the two software are successful in modeling toll plaza capacity and queuing. As expected, each simulation model does possess benefits over the other in terms of set up time, analysis reporting time, and practicality of results. The SHAKER model setup takes mere seconds in order to create a network and input vehicle, another few seconds to calibrate driving parameters, and roughly 10 additional seconds to report analysis. Conversely, setting up the VISSIM model, even for the most experienced user, can take several hours and the report analysis time can take several more hours as it is dependant on the number of required simulation runs and complexity of the network. VISSIM is most beneficial by the fact that its modeling allows for driver variability while SHAKER assumes equilibrium amongst lane choice and queuing. This creates a more realistic condition to observed traffic patterns. Even though differences are prevalent, it is important that in each simulation model the capacity is accurately simulated and each can be used to benefit operational situations related to toll plaza traffic conditions

Pricing, Investment, and Network Equilibrium

Despite rapidly emerging innovative road pricing and investment principles, the development of a long run network dynamics model for necessary policy evaluation is still lagging. This research endeavors to fill this gap and models the impacts of road financing policies throughout the network equilibration process. The manner in which pricing and investment jointly shape network equilibrium is particularly important and explored in this study. The interactions among travel demand, road supply, revenue mechanisms and investment rules are modeled at the link level in a network growth simulator. After assessing several measures of effectiveness, the proposed network growth model is able to evaluate the short- and long-run impacts of a broad spectrum of road pricing and investment policies on large-scale road networks, which can provide valuable information to decision-makers such as the implications of various policy scenarios on social welfare, financial situation of road authorities and potential implementation problems. Some issues hard to address in theoretical analysis can be examined in the agent-based simulation model. As a demonstration, we apply the network growth model to assess marginal and average pricing scenarios on a sample network. Even this relatively simple application provides new insights into issues around road pricing that have not previously been seriously considered. For instance, the results disclose a potential problem of over-investment when the marginal cost pricing scheme is adopted in conjunction with a myopic profit-neutral investment policy.Transportation network equilibrium; Road growth; Pricing; Congestion toll; Investment; Transport policy analysis.

Microscopic Simulation On The Operation And Capacity Of Toll Plaza In Malaysia

Microscopic traffic simulation software has several applications, such as performance evaluation, plan improvements, traffic operation control, design, and transportation facility management. This study presents the application of the well-known traffic simulation software VISSIM in the operation of toll plazas in Malaysia. This study evaluates the overall toll operation of two types of closed system toll plazas in the Malaysian expressway to gain insight into the variables that influence toll operations, which in turn affect the actual capacity of toll plazas in terms of average and maximum queue length. VISSIM was used to build toll plaza models for the mainline and ramp toll plazas which are Juru and Jawi respectively, to study their toll operations and actual capacities. In order to simulate the toll operations at toll plazas, microscopic data were obtained for each vehicle arriving and departing the toll plazas through video recordings. Video recordings were taken from two sources. The first source was from the installed CCTV and the second source was from the PLUS CCTV cameras at the tollbooths. The collected field data of the Juru and Jawi toll plazas differed in terms of number of lanes, lane configuration, toll base fee, expressway location, traffic demand, and traffic composition characteristics. The toll plaza models were then calibrated according to the measure of effectiveness and key parameter to match real world toll operations at toll plazas. Results revealed that service time is the most important parameter for evaluating the toll operation of toll plazas. Moreover, service time for entry is much lower than the service time for exit. The findings indicated that the percentage of heavy vehicles in traffic flow has a significant impact on the queue lengths at the Juru and Jawi toll plazas. Apart from that, the models were used to predict the operation of toll plazas in the future upon implementation of full electronic toll collection (ETC). The results indicated that the implementation of full ETC at the entry of both the Juru and Jawi toll plazas did not improve the operations of the toll plazas. However, the implementation of full ETC at the exit significantly improved the toll operations. But, the implementation of full ETC at the exit of the Jawi toll plaza has negatively influenced the queue lengths of Touch 'n Go and Smart TAG lanes due to the location of the signalised intersection which is near to Jawi toll plaza. The study has managed to contribute to two major findings at the traffic operations at toll plaza. The first contribution is on the prediction of traffic operation at the toll plaza in the future after the implementation of full electronic toll collection system at conventional toll plazas. The second contribution is on the estimation of the actual capacity of the conventional toll plazas

Decarbonization of toll plazas: impact assessment of toll collection system management

Transport climate change impacts have become a worldwide concern. The use of Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) could contribute to a more effective use of resources in toll road networks. Management of toll plazas is central to the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, as it is there that bottlenecks and congestion occur. This study focuses on management strategies aimed at reducing climate change impacts of toll plazas by managing toll collection systems. These strategies are based on the use of different collection system technologies – Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) and Open Road Tolling (ORT) – and on queue management. The carbon footprint of various toll plazas is determined by a proposed integrated methodology which estimates the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of the different operational stages at toll plazas (deceleration, service time, acceleration, and queuing) for the different toll collection systems. To validate the methodology, two main-line toll plazas of a Spanish toll highway were evaluated. The findings reveal that the application of new technologies to toll collection systems is an effective management strategy from an environmental point of view. The case studies revealed that ORT systems lead to savings of up to 70% of CO2 emissions at toll plazas, while ETC systems save 20% comparing to the manual ones. Furthermore, queue management can offer a 16% emissions savings when queue time is reduced by 116 seconds. The integrated methodology provides an efficient environmental management tool for toll plazas. The use of new technologies is the future of the decarbonization of toll plazas