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Congestion in a city with a central bottleneck

Author

Listed:
  • Mogens Fosgerau

    (DTU - Danmarks Tekniske Universitet = Technical University of Denmark, Centre for Transport Studies - Centre for Transport Studies, ENS Cachan - École normale supérieure - Cachan)

  • André de Palma

    (CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, ENS Cachan - École normale supérieure - Cachan)

Abstract

We consider dynamic congestion in an urban setting where trip origins are spatially distributed. All travelers must pass through a downtown bottleneck in order to reach their destination in the CBD. Each traveler chooses departure time to maximize general concave scheduling utility. We find that, at equilibrium, travelers sort according to their distance to the destination; the queue is always unimodal regardless of the spatial distribution of trip origins. We construct a welfare maximizing tolling regime, which eliminates congestion. All travelers located beyond a critical distance from the CBD gain from tolling, even when toll revenues are not redistributed, while nearby travelers lose. We discuss our results in the context of acceptability of tolling policies.

Suggested Citation

  • Mogens Fosgerau & André de Palma, 2012. "Congestion in a city with a central bottleneck," Post-Print hal-00783803, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:hal-00783803
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jue.2011.12.002
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Dynamic model; Toll policy; Spatial differentiation; Acceptability;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D1 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior
    • R1 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics
    • R4 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics

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