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

Assessing Data and Modeling Needs for Urban Transport Sector: An Australian Perspective

Managing the transport assets of an urban economy and ensuring that change is in accordance with suitable performance measures requires continuing improvement in analytical power and empirical information. One crucial input in an ongoing review of data and modeling capability for improving planning and policy support in the urban transport sector is a recognition of the role of stakeholders and the impact they can have in supporting the ongoing commitment to implementing a state of practice data and modeling strategy. This paper presents a multi-stage stakeholder assessment of data and modeling needs (primarily in the urban passenger context) in Australia that is required to ensure the continuity of appropriate deliverables to a market of diverse stakeholders. The implementation of the framework of inquiry enables data and modeling agencies to remain current and relevant. Such an exercise should be encouraged from time to time as part of good practice

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

Simulation of basic multi-hop broadcast techniques in vehicular Ad-Hoc networks using veins simulator

Research of Broadcast Techniques in Vehicular Ad-Hoc networks using the VEINS simulatorThis project presents to the reader an incursion into the world of smart cities and vehicles, intelligent transport systems, and vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs). They are conceptually analyzed, studied in terms of requirements, framework, architecture, applications and standardization. The main objective of this project is the simulation of basic techniques of message dissemination in VANETs, this project shows a brief description of broadcast dissemination techniques. Also, it is necessary to analyze simulation of VANETs. For this reason, it presents a brief description of mobility generators, network simulators and VANETs simulators paying attention to the open source ones. The main focus is set on the VEINS simulation framework, due to its high performance results and a bidirectional coupling between the network and the traffic simulators. From that point, the project is aimed at analyzing the basic paradigms of VEINS components (OMNeT++, SUMO and the TraCI module) and providing a study on their features. Three techniques are simulated (Flooding, Counter and Probability schemes) in two different scenarios (urban and highway), the simulation results are shown focused on the amount of retransmitting nodes, percentage of reached nodes, amount of packets sent, average packet delay, and percentage of packets received. Finally, a detailed manual is presented to the reader. This manual shows how to install the VEINS simulator and its components in both Windows and Linux systems. In addition, it shows how to create a scenario from an extracted map from OpenStreetMap

A Typology for Characterizing Human Action in MultiSector Dynamics Models

The role of individual and collective human action is increasingly recognized as a prominent and arguably paramount determinant in shaping the behavior, trajectory, and vulnerability of multisector systems. This human influence operates at multiple scales: from short-term (hourly to daily) to long-term (annually to centennial) timescales, and from the local to the global, pushing systems toward either desirable or undesirable outcomes. However, the effort to represent human systems in multisector models has been fragmented across philosophical, methodological, and disciplinary lines. To cohere insights across diverse modeling approaches, we present a new typology for classifying how human actors are represented in the broad suite of coupled human-natural system models that are applied in MultiSector Dynamics (MSD) research. The typology conceptualizes a “sector” as a system-of-systems that includes a diverse group of human actors, defined across individual to collective social levels, involved in governing, provisioning, and utilizing products, goods, or services toward some human end. We trace the salient features of modeled representations of human systems by organizing the typology around two key questions: (a) Who are the actors in MSD systems and what are their actions? (b) How and for what purpose are these actors and actions operationalized in a computational model? We use this typology to critically examine existing models and chart the frontier of human systems modeling for MSD research

Modeling toothpaste brand choice: An empirical comparison of artificial neural networks and multinomial probit model

Copyright @ 2010 Atlantis PressThe purpose of this study is to compare the performances of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) and Multinomial Probit (MNP) approaches in modeling the choice decision within fast moving consumer goods sector. To do this, based on 2597 toothpaste purchases of a panel sample of 404 households, choice models are built and their performances are compared on the 861 purchases of a test sample of 135 households. Results show that ANN's predictions are better while MNP is useful in providing marketing insight

An experimental study of the Online Information Paradox: Does en-route information improve road network performance?

This study investigates the empirical presence of a theoretical transportation paradox, defined as the "Online Information Paradox" (OIP). The paradox suggests that, for certain road networks, the provision of online information deteriorate travel conditions for all users of that network relative to the situation where no online information is provided to users. The analytical presence of the paradox was derived for a specific network structure by using two equilibrium models, the first being the Expected User Equilibrium (EUE) solution (no information scenario) and the other being the User Equilibrium with Recourse (UER) solution (with information scenario). An incentivised computerised route choice game was designed using the concepts of experimental economics and administered in a controlled laboratory environment to investigate the physical presence of the paradox. Aggregate statistics of path flows and Total System Travel Costs (TSTC) were used to compare the experimental results with the theoretical findings. A total of 12 groups of 12 participants completed the experiment and the OIP and the occurrence of the OIP being significant was observed in 11 of the 12 cases. Though information increased travel costs for users on average, it reduced the volatility of travel costs experienced in the no information scenario indicating that information can achieve a more reliable system. Further replications of similar experiments and more importantly field based identification of the phenomena will force transport professionals to be aware of the emergence of the paradox. In addition, studies such as this emphasise the need for the adoption of adaptive traffic assignment techniques to appropriately model the acquisition of information on a road network