Comparison of usage-based congestion pricing schemes

This paper investigates how usage-based pricing can be applied in order to improve the efficiency of the transportation system. Distance-based, travel time-based and delayed-based pricing schemes are investigated, both from a one-link and network perspective. A static modeling framework is adopted, based on user-equilibrium, and a simplified emission model based on the HBEFA emission model is used. Optimal usage-based fees are calculated using a surrogate-based optimization framework, and determination of zone layout is done using k-means clustering. The results for a Stockholm region network show that already with network wide pricing a large proportion of the maximum improvement of social surplus achievable with first-best pricing, can be reached. Delay-based pricing, in which the users are charged based on the excess travel time in comparison to free flow travel times, achieves 99% of the maximum improvement, already with one single fee across the whole network. With clustering of links based on their first-best optimal fees, the benefits of both distance and travel time-based fees can significantly be improved