A Continuous Transportation Network Design Problem with the Consideration of Road Congestion Charging

This paper proposes a biobjective continuous transportation network design problem concerning road congestion charging with the consideration of speed limit. The efficiency of the traffic network and the reduction of pollution in the network environment are improved by designing a reasonable road capacity enhancement and speed limit strategy. A biobjective bilevel programming model is developed to formulate the proposed network design problem. The first target of the upper problem is the optimization of road charging efficiency, and the other target is the total cost of vehicle emissions; these objectives are required to devise the optimal road capacity enhancement scheme, speed limiting schemes for different time periods, and the road pricing scheme. The lower-level problem involving travellers’ route choice behaviours uses stochastic user equilibrium (SUE) theory. Based on the nondominated sorting genetic algorithm, which is applied to solve the bilevel programming model, a numerical example is developed to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed model and algorithm. The results show that the implementation of congestion charging measures on the congested road sections would help to alleviate road congestion in the transportation network, effectively save transportation infrastructure investment and limited urban land resources, increase fiscal revenue, and open up new sources of funds for urban infrastructure construction.

The Impact of Congestion Charging Technique on Traffic Flow and Atmospheric Pollution in Kuwait City

Traffic congestion is a major problem in high populated cities, due to the frequent increase on travel demand and exponential vehicles growth. Resulting in increased vehicle queuing and slows road speed which can led to increase delays, air pollution, and fuel consumption. Poor traffic management in the congested spot result in elongated traffic jam. Therefore, this study aims to reduce traffic congestion by applying congestion charging system which is an effective method to regulate demand without increasing supply. Kuwait City network was selected to perform the system. Kuwait City is a vital city that has a lot of governmental and commercial facilities which make the city crowded especially during the peak hours. The current condition was analyzed in SYNCHRO simulation software in order to compare it with the improved condition to confirm the applicability. The genetic algorithm will be used as a practical method to apply congestion pricing in order to provide optimized solutions that will be analyzed in SYNCHRO software to examine the performance of the network. The impacts of applying congestion pricing system were remarkable. From traffic point of view, the demand was regulated, also total delays and fuel consumption were improved. The reduction of total delay is ranged between 24.4% to 40.58%, and the reduction of fuel used is ranged between 36.76% to 60.89%. From an economical point of view, the user cost decreased in a range between 27.77% and 43.75%. In addition, from an environmental aspect the emissions of HC, CO and NOx improved significantly which improved air quality.

Evaluating the impact of new congestion charging scheme using smartphone-based data: a spatial change detection study

Traffic congestion in urban areas is a challenging issue in transportation planning. Policy options have been proposed to evaluate the impacts of interventional action through change detection or before–after studies. In this research, low-cost traffic image data collected by smartphone-based application have been employed and the impact of new congestion charging scheme (CCS) upon congestion within congestion charging zone (CCZ) as well as the entire network in Tehran, the capital of Iran has been investigated. Applying statistical tests indicated the significance of change in congestion within CCZ by applying the new CCS. Differential Moran’s I as spatial autocorrelation index specified the spatial patterns of congestion between the critical time of changing the scheme on weekdays (17:00–19:00) and weekend (6:00–13:00) after implementing the new CCS. The approach in this paper can be used with a low-cost appropriate instrument to monitor the probable change in traffic congestion by introducing any new scheme or sudden change.

Urban Congestion Charging Acceptability: An International Comparative Study

The congestion charging scheme is regarded as a successful measure to reduce traffic-related problems. However, low general acceptability of the public for implementing such a scheme is a barrier against its success. In this research, an online pre-designed survey was conducted in five capitals (Budapest, Tunis, Amman, Ulaanbaatar, and Damascus) to define the factors that affect congestion charging acceptability the most. The results of relationships between the studied factors like travel behavior and acceptance of the congestion charging scheme show an irregular pattern in each city. It indicates that the identity of each city and its general policy implications determine which factors significantly affect the public acceptability of congestion charging scheme. In Amman and Budapest, most of the predictors have no statistical effect on the schemes’ public acceptability. Consistent with previous researches, on the other hand, the results demonstrate that the schemes’ effectiveness is crucial and affects the acceptability significantly in all cities. At the same time, it shows that the “prior scheme knowledge” factor has a significant direct effect on the acceptability level in three cities (Damascus, Tunis, and Ulaanbaatar).