Comparative Analysis of Dynamic Pricing Strategies for Managed Lanes

015703102015Final ReportPDFTech Report2012-089SManaged lanesVariable tollsPricingReal time informationRevenuesTraffic delaySimulationAlternatives analysisResearch HubFinanceHighwaysOperations and Traffic ManagementI10: Economics and AdministrationI73: Traffic ControlUnited StatesSoutheastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development and Education Center (STRIDE)Laval, Jorge A.Yin, YafengLou, YingyanCho, Hyun W.Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development and Education Center (STRIDE)United States. Dept. of Transportation. Research and Innovative Technology AdministrationUS Transportation CollectionThe objective of this research is to investigate and compare the performances of different dynamic pricing strategies for managed lanes facilities. These pricing strategies include real-time traffic responsive methods, as well as refund options and tradable credit schemes. Analytical expressions for the assignment, revenue and total delay in each alternative are derived as a function of the pricing strategy. It is found that minimum total system delay can be achieved with many different pricing strategies. This gives flexibility to operators to allocate congestion to either alternative according to their specific objective while maintaining the same minimum total system delay. Given a specific objective, the optimal pricing strategy can be determined by finding a single parameter value in the case of high-occupancy/toll (HOT) lanes. Performances of pricing strategies are compared by simulation experiments