Measuring regional differences in users' perceptions towards interurban toll roads

Public acceptability is crucial to achieve the successful implementation of certain policy initiatives. In the transport sector, this is especially relevant for toll roads since they entail a burden to the users. Previous literature in this field has mainly focused on analyzing the influence of different individual characteristics on attitudes towards road charges, without clear results. However, other context-specific drivers such as regional parameters may also play an important role to explain users' attitudes, especially when the implementation of tolls within the same nation varies throughout regions. The goal of this paper is to analyze regional differences in users' perceptions with regard to tolls as an appropriate way to finance the provision of road infrastructure. Based on a nationwide survey conducted to road users in interurban toll roads in Spain, we develop a multilevel logit model to explore regional differences in drivers' perceptions. The research concludes that differences identified seem to be more influenced by context-specific variables, related to either the characteristics of the toll road or the region, than by the characteristics of the individuals. The paper also underlines the negative effects of an asymmetrical distribution of toll roads across regions on users' perceptions, since those territories especially suffering the burden of tolls show a more negative attitude towards road charging.     

Modelling and evaluation of road pricing in Paris

This article describes the impacts of road pricing in Ile-de-France, a region that includes Paris. The morning peak is studied using METROPOLIS: a dynamic network simulator that treats endogenously travellers' mode, departure time and route-choice decisions. Time-independent tolls on selected links, time-varying cordon tolls, and a network-wide toll proportional to travel time are considered. Welfare gains from the link and cordon tolls are relatively small. The comprehensive travel-time-based toll yields much higher benefits. In all cases, benefits to users amount to a large fraction of toll revenues and exceed the monetised value of reductions in noise, accidents and vehicle emissions.     

The politico-economic link between public transport and road pricing: An ex-ante study of the Stockholm road-pricing trial

A full-scale road pricing trial will be performed in Stockholm for 7 months in 2006. The road tolls are bundled with major improvements of public transport. The trial will be followed by a local referendum. We conduct numerical simulations with a model of modal choice to estimate the welfare effects of road tolls on commuters crossing the toll zone. We find that in the absence of revenue recycling, few commuters gain from the road-toll reform. However, the fraction of gainers rises considerably when public transport is improved as planned in Stockholm.     

The impacts of road tolling: A review of Norwegian experience

Road tolling has been used extensively for funding of national roads in Norway since 1982. The article, which is primarily based on review of literature, identifies the impacts of tolling in four key policy areas: economic efficiency, regional development, regional redistribution and democracy. Toll financing may change the ranking of projects but does hardly reduce construction costs. The recurrent budget has been quite stable and toll revenues therefore represent net additional resources for road investment. Regionally, tolling has led to a shift of road investments to more central areas. Tolling has increased local political influence compared to national influence.     

Flat versus spatially variable tolling: A case study in Fresno,California

A number of studies have examined the feasibility of temporal variations in tolls. However, spatial variation in tolls has not received much attention, especially in practice. Spatial variation could effectively reduce congestion and increase profits. To fill this gap, we conduct an empirical application on 3 different road segments using the Fresno, California's transportation planning model. Our modeling results in a number of interesting insights. First, the derived optimal flat toll values are very close to the average variable tolls, but the effects of applying spatially variable tolls on improving total revenues (from 4% to 24%) and total improved travel time (from 18% to 1083%) measures are significant. Second, spatially variable tolls are more effective, but more costly, particularly for arterials, which can be attributed to the higher number of access points for arterials. Third, spatial variations in tolls are more effective for peak hours than for off-peak hours and for social optimization than for profit maximization. Fourth, to improve throughputs for both profit maximization and social optimization, the prevalent tolling pattern along a corridor induces lower final volumes per capacity (V/Cs) (after pricing) at the mainline flow sections and relatively higher final V/Cs at the entrance and exit (boundary) points. Finally, optimal toll patterns are not dependent on vehicle miles traveled (VMTs) or volumes but, rather, are related to targeted V/Cs. Therefore, flow-dependent charges along a corridor should be based on V/Cs rather than on volumes or VMTs.     

Norway's urban toll rings: Evolving towards congestion charging?

The role of various types of road user tolls has been an important part of Norwegian transport development for a number of years. There are now around 50 such projects in operation around the country. This paper examines the urban toll ring projects and presents results from new research into the schemes in Norway's three largest cities: Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim. The research indicates that key decisions are being debated as to whether the schemes will continue as toll rings, be stopped completely or transformed into more of a demand management style policy. Interviews with road and local authorities have shown that the feelings are mixed and that the decision will depend on various transport, social, organisational and political factors.This paper reviews the cases of Bergen, Oslo and Trondheim and documents the latest developments in each scheme. The theory behind the application of the toll rings is explored through the case studies. Despite all the projects being implemented by similar networks, each scheme developed its own individual characteristics. These are laid alongside the economic and transport benefits with which they have been associated. The Strategic Policy Niche Management framework is used to analyse various aspects of the toll projects and identify key lessons. The effect these might have on future UK projects is also discussed.     

Evidence on users’ attitudes towards road user charges—A cross-sectional survey of six Norwegian toll schemes

Attitudes towards road user charges have in the last decade become a focus of interest for researchers and planners in a number of disciplines including economics, transport planning and environmental sciences. Most of the literature has been based on single and/or hypothetical schemes and has a number of limitations, such as the potential differences in attitudes that might depend on whether users have actually experienced the gains of tolling are not considered. This paper gives further insight into user attitudes towards road user charges and overcomes some of the limitations observed in the literature. In particular, we examine attitudes towards six different Norwegian toll schemes with different characteristics and at different stages of implementation. The results show the following: (i) road users think negatively of tolls irrespective of the type of scheme or stage of charging; (ii) negative attitudes are highly correlated with the level of information given to users on the intentions of the tolling prior to implementation and (iii) toll levels significantly impact attitudes. Further, it is shown that attitudes vary significantly with socioeconomic characteristics. These findings demonstrate that governments need marketing strategies that clearly explain the benefits to users beforehand. Some of these strategies are proposed.     

Congestion tolls and parking fees: A comparison of the potential effect on travel behavior

This paper presents a comparison of attitudes towards congestion and parking tolls and explores their effect on travel behavior. The findings indicate that drivers are sensitive mainly to congestion tolls and are willing to change their travel habits to avoid these tolls. The major effect of a congestion toll is the shifting of the time of the journey. High levels of demand elasticity (−1.8 for congestion tolls and −1.2 for parking fees) were found. The readiness to pay parking fees is greater; thus, the effectiveness of congestion tolls in reducing demand is higher during the times the tolls apply.     

The multi-class, multi-criterion traffic equilibrium and the efficiency of congestion pricing

We consider the effect of the so-called second-best tolls on the price of anarchy of the traffic equilibrium problem where there are multiple classes of users with a discrete set of values of time. We derive several bounds of the price of anarchy for this problem when the tolls are considered and not considered as part of the system cost, with the time-based criterion and the cost-based criterion, respectively. All the bounds give us useful information on the effect of the tolls, which can be used to design network toll schemes.     

Discrete choice models of traveler participation in differential time of day pricing programs

Tolls that vary based on time of day or congestion are gaining attention around the world as a potential travel demand management strategy that can shift peak period travel to off peak periods thereby contributing to peak period congestion relief. However, despite the widespread interest in the concept, there is very little empirical data available on the impacts of variable tolls on traveler choices and disaggregate models that can be used to predict traveler response to variable pricing are few. This paper reports on results from two bridges with differential time of day tolls in the Lee County area of Florida in the United States. Using travel survey data collected at these two bridges, discrete choice models of traveler response to the variable toll rates are estimated. The models indicate that travelers who are retired, have a low income, have flextime at their place of employment, or have a flexible travel schedule are more likely to alter their time of travel with greater frequency due to the variable toll.     

Bounding the inefficiency of atomic splittable selfish traffic equilibria with elastic demands

We determine the exact upper bound of the inefficiency of atomic splittable selfish traffic equilibria with elastic travel demand with and without road pricing. In the previous results, only pseudo-approximation bound were obtained for this case. By comparison, we also conclude that the traffic equilibrium with elastic demand may be worse than the corresponding fixed demand case, which implying that the demands’ elastic can have a negative effect on the quality of equilibrium solutions. Finally, we propose a road pricing mechanism. We prove that there are optimal tolls in general network, atomic players and elastic travel demand setting.     

How large is the gap between present and efficient transport prices in Europe?

In this paper, we analyse the gap between present transport prices and efficient transport prices. Efficient transport prices are those prices that maximise economic welfare, including external costs (congestion, air pollution, accidents). The methodology is applied to six urban and interregional case studies using one common optimal pricing model. The case studies cover passenger as well as freight transport and cover all modes. We find that prices need to be raised most for peak urban passenger car transport and to a lesser extent for interregional road transport. Optimal pricing results for public transport are more mixed. We show that current external costs on congested roads are a bad guide for optimal taxes and tolls: the optimal toll that takes into account the reaction of demand is often less than one third of the present marginal external cost.     

Capacity and toll choice of an add-on toll road under various ownership regimes

This paper considers the problem of how to select the toll and capacity levels of a new toll road added onto an existing network with a single link. The existing network has various ownership regimes: free, public or private owned toll road. The effects of the ownership regime of the existing network on the capacity and toll selections of the add-on toll road, the efficiency of the whole network in the sense of total social benefit, and the investment incentives of the government to develop the new road are investigated when the traffic demand is elastic or inelastic.     

Capacity and toll choice of an add-on toll road under various ownership regimes

This paper considers the problem of how to select the toll and capacity levels of a new toll road added onto an existing network with a single link. The existing network has various ownership regimes: free, public or private owned toll road. The effects of the ownership regime of the existing network on the capacity and toll selections of the add-on toll road, the efficiency of the whole network in the sense of total social benefit, and the investment incentives of the government to develop the new road are investigated when the traffic demand is elastic or inelastic.     

Optimal distance tolls under congestion pricing and continuously distributed value of time

This paper addresses the optimal distance-based toll design problem for cordon-based congestion pricing schemes. The optimal distance tolls are determined by a positive and non-decreasing toll-charge function with respect to the travel distance. Each feasible toll-charge function is evaluated by a probit-based SUE (Stochastic User Equilibrium) problem with elastic demand, asymmetric link travel time functions, and continuously distributed VOT, solved by a convergent Cost Averaging (CA) method. The toll design problem is formulated as a mixed-integer mathematical programming with equilibrium constraints (MPEC) model, which is solved by a Hybrid GA (Genetic Algorithm)–CA method. Finally, the proposed models and algorithms are assessed by two numerical examples.     

Congestion pricing in the absence of demand functions

This paper enhances a trial-and-error implementation scheme of marginal-cost pricing on a transportation network, in the absence of explicit expression of the demand function. Link tolls and link flows are updated for the next trial with the revealed link flows for given current trial toll pattern. The method is quite simple, requiring only some function evaluations. Also, the step size is not required to be square summable, thereby leading to the improvement of the efficiency of the algorithm. The global convergence of the method is proved and some numerical results are reported to illustrate its performance.     

An origin–destination based road pricing model for static and multi-period traffic assignment problems

To mitigate traffic externalities, we propose an origin–destination (OD) based road pricing model for traffic assignment problems. For elastic demand, we derive explicit optimal tolls for the OD-based pricing scheme. We also extend the model to a multi-period static traffic assignment (MSTA) where we derive analytically the route and OD-dependent tolls based on equilibrium conditions. We present some examples to show that the OD-based tolling scheme could improve the system welfare significantly, compared to the no-toll scenario (user equilibrium – UE).     

城市地铁票价制定原则及阶段性定价策略的研究

我国原有地铁投资模式、效益还返机制和长期低票价政策,使地铁企业陷入严重亏损的困境。根据目前我国投融资体制和投资主体的变化情况,从论述城市地铁的产品特性及价格特性入手,对地铁票价的影响因素及票价策略组合进行分析,并结合地铁建设的不同阶段,研究适应于不同阶段制定地铁票价的一般性原则、目标和定价策略。     

How efficient and productive are road toll companies?: Evidence from Norway

This article evaluates the technical efficiency of toll companies, i.e., how toll companies perform relative to each other, their productivity, and whether toll companies improve their efficiency from one year to the next relative to the best performers. The rationale for this study is that Norwegian road toll companies have been criticized for not being as efficient as they should; it has been claimed that some have very large operational costs compared to their peers and hence are inefficient. The framework for analysis is Data Envelopment Analysis and its subsequent Malmquist Productivity indices. The data are from the accounting period of 2001–2004 and contain information on 18 companies. The results show that: (1) there is a potential for efficiency increases of about 14%, (2) there are economies of scale in the industry in that larger companies (as measured by number of lanes served) tend to be more efficient compared to smaller companies, and (3) there has been a productivity increase in the sector of about 1%, and this progress is due more to companies employing a newer and more effective method for collecting funds and less to improving efficiency from one year to the next. Finally, these findings suggest that the Norwegian road authorities should consider reorganizing the toll sector such that the inherent economies of scale are utilized.     

The Melbourne City Link Project

This paper explores the conception, development, design and operation of the Melbourne City Link Project—one of the world's first and largest fully electronic road tolling systems. The geographic, political and transport contexts of the project are described, including the transport need for the project and the reason why it was developed as a toll system relying totally on electronic toll collection. The operation of the project is then described with respect to the design assumptions and expectations. The methods of project funding and subsequent toll collection are described in some detail. The project is seen to have been a success, technically, politically and socially.