This study considers the selfish routing problem, where bounds are usually established in the spirit of 'price of anarchy' determined by looking for the worst possible ratio between the total cost incurred by players in an equilibrium situation and in an outcome of minimum-possible total cost or system optimum. The issues that become apparent when oligopolistic competition and selfish-routing both come into play in the context of private toll roads are discussed. This study investigates the inefficiency of the equilibria for a situation where two or more profit-maximising private firms operate multiple toll roads in a parallel road network. The inefficiency of oligopolistic toll competition is examined in the absence of any regulatory authority. A mathematical model of the situation is described and the results obtained are discussed. For the covering abstract see ITRD E144737. Reprinted with permission of Elsevier
Samenvatting