IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/ortrsc/v49y2015i1p46-65.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Congestion Behavior and Tolls in a Bottleneck Model with Stochastic Capacity

Author

Listed:
  • Ling-Ling Xiao

    (School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China; and Key Lab of Complex System Analysis Management and Decision, Ministry of Education, China)

  • Hai-Jun Huang

    (School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China; and Key Lab of Complex System Analysis Management and Decision, Ministry of Education, China)

  • Ronghui Liu

    (Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom)

Abstract

In this paper we investigate a bottleneck model in which the capacity of the bottleneck is assumed stochastic and follows a uniform distribution. The commuters' departure time choice is assumed to follow the user equilibrium principle according to mean trip cost. The analytical solution of the proposed model is derived. Both the analytical and numerical results show that the capacity variability would indeed change the commuters' travel behavior by increasing the mean trip cost and lengthening the peak period. We then design congestion pricing schemes within the framework of the new stochastic bottleneck model, for both a time-varying toll and a single-step coarse toll, and prove that the proposed piecewise time-varying toll can effectively cut down, and even eliminate, the queues behind the bottleneck. We also find that the single-step coarse toll could either advance or postpone the earliest departure time. Furthermore, the numerical results show that the proposed pricing schemes can indeed improve the efficiency of the stochastic bottleneck through decreasing the system’s total travel cost.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ortrsc:v:49:y:2015:i:1:p:46-65
    DOI: 10.1287/trsc.2013.0483
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/trsc.2013.0483
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/trsc.2013.0483?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. Yang, Hai & Hai-Jun, Huang, 1997. "Analysis of the time-varying pricing of a bottleneck with elastic demand using optimal control theory," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 425-440, November.
    2. 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.
    3. André de Palma & Robin Lindsey & Emile Quinet & Roger Vickerman (ed.), 2011. "A Handbook of Transport Economics," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 12679.
    4. Kenneth Button & Erik Verhoef (ed.), 1998. "Road Pricing, Traffic Congestion and the Environment," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 940.
    5. Arnott, Richard & de Palma, Andre & Lindsey, Robin, 1990. "Economics of a bottleneck," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 111-130, January.
    6. Huang, Hai-Jun & Lam, William H. K., 2002. "Modeling and solving the dynamic user equilibrium route and departure time choice problem in network with queues," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 36(3), pages 253-273, March.
    7. Knockaert, Jasper & Verhoef, Erik T. & Rouwendal, Jan, 2016. "Bottleneck congestion: Differentiating the coarse charge," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 59-73.
    8. Lindsey, Robin, 2009. "Cost recovery from congestion tolls with random capacity and demand," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(1), pages 16-24, July.
    9. Fosgerau, Mogens, 2010. "On the relation between the mean and variance of delay in dynamic queues with random capacity and demand," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 598-603, April.
    10. 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.
    11. Arnott, R. & de Palma, A. & Lindsey, R., 1990. "Departure time and route choice for the morning commute," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 209-228, June.
    12. Arnott, Richard & de Palma, Andre & Lindsey, Robin, 1999. "Information and time-of-usage decisions in the bottleneck model with stochastic capacity and demand," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 43(3), pages 525-548, March.
    13. 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.
    14. Henderson, J. V., 1974. "Road congestion : A reconsideration of pricing theory," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(3), pages 346-365, July.
    15. 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.
    16. Vickrey, William S, 1969. "Congestion Theory and Transport Investment," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 59(2), pages 251-260, May.
    17. Small, Kenneth A, 1982. "The Scheduling of Consumer Activities: Work Trips," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 72(3), pages 467-479, June.
    18. Braid, Ralph M., 1989. "Uniform versus peak-load pricing of a bottleneck with elastic demand," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 320-327, November.
    19. Robin Lindsey, C. & van den Berg, Vincent A.C. & Verhoef, Erik T., 2012. "Step tolling with bottleneck queuing congestion," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 46-59.
    20. André de Palma & Robin Lindsey & Emile Quinet & Robert Vickerman, 2011. "Handbook Of Transport Economics," PSE-Ecole d'économie de Paris (Postprint) halshs-00754912, HAL.
    21. 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.
    22. Fosgerau, Mogens, 2008. "Congestion costs in bottleneck equilibrium with stochastic capacity and demand," MPRA Paper 10040, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    23. Arnott, Richard & de Palma, Andre & Lindsey, Robin, 1993. "A Structural Model of Peak-Period Congestion: A Traffic Bottleneck with Elastic Demand," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(1), pages 161-179, March.
    24. Barbara W.Y. Siu & Hong K. Lo, 2009. "Equilibrium Trip Scheduling in Congested Traffic under Uncertainty," Springer Books, in: William H. K. Lam & S. C. Wong & Hong K. Lo (ed.), Transportation and Traffic Theory 2009: Golden Jubilee, chapter 0, pages 147-167, Springer.
    25. Chen-Hsiu Laih, 2004. "Effects of the optimal step toll scheme on equilibrium commuter behaviour," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 36(1), pages 59-81.
    26. Yao, Tao & Friesz, Terry L. & Wei, Mike Mingcheng & Yin, Yafeng, 2010. "Congestion derivatives for a traffic bottleneck," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 44(10), pages 1149-1165, December.
    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. 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.
    2. 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.
    3. Kenneth Small, 2015. "The Bottleneck Model: An Assessment and Interpretation," Working Papers 141506, University of California-Irvine, Department of Economics.
    4. Small, Kenneth A., 2015. "The bottleneck model: An assessment and interpretation," Economics of Transportation, Elsevier, vol. 4(1), pages 110-117.
    5. André de Palma & Mogens Fosgerau, 2011. "Dynamic Traffic Modeling," Chapters, in: André de Palma & Robin Lindsey & Emile Quinet & Roger Vickerman (ed.), A Handbook of Transport Economics, chapter 9, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    6. Liu, Yang & Li, Yuanyuan & Hu, Lu, 2018. "Departure time and route choices in bottleneck equilibrium under risk and ambiguity," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 117(PB), pages 774-793.
    7. Zhu, Tingting & Li, Yao & Long, Jiancheng, 2022. "Departure time choice equilibrium and tolling strategies for a bottleneck with continuous scheduling preference," Transportation Research Part E: Logistics and Transportation Review, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    8. Liu, Qiumin & Jiang, Rui & Liu, Ronghui & Zhao, Hui & Gao, Ziyou, 2020. "Travel cost budget based user equilibrium in a bottleneck model with stochastic capacity," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 1-37.
    9. Yao, Tao & Wei, Mike Mingcheng & Zhang, Bo & Friesz, Terry, 2012. "Congestion derivatives for a traffic bottleneck with heterogeneous commuters," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 46(10), pages 1454-1473.
    10. 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.
    11. Yao, Tao & Friesz, Terry L. & Wei, Mike Mingcheng & Yin, Yafeng, 2010. "Congestion derivatives for a traffic bottleneck," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 44(10), pages 1149-1165, December.
    12. 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.
    13. Hugo E. Silva & Robin Lindsey & André de Palma & Vincent A. C. van den Berg, 2017. "On the Existence and Uniqueness of Equilibrium in the Bottleneck Model with Atomic Users," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 51(3), pages 863-881, August.
    14. 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.
    15. Wu, Wen-Xiang & Huang, Hai-Jun, 2015. "An ordinary differential equation formulation of the bottleneck model with user heterogeneity," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 81(P1), pages 34-58.
    16. Li, Zhi-Chun & Lam, William H.K. & Wong, S.C., 2017. "Step tolling in an activity-based bottleneck model," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 306-334.
    17. Guo, Ren-Yong & Yang, Hai & Huang, Hai-Jun & Li, Xinwei, 2018. "Day-to-day departure time choice under bounded rationality in the bottleneck model," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 117(PB), pages 832-849.
    18. Xiao, Yu & Coulombel, Nicolas & Palma, André de, 2017. "The valuation of travel time reliability: does congestion matter?," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 113-141.
    19. 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.
    20. André de Palma & Mogens Fosgerau, 2010. "Dynamic and Static congestion models: A review," Working Papers hal-00539166, HAL.

    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:49:y:2015:i:1:p:46-65. 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.