Dynamic optimal toll design problem - travel behavioral analysis including departure time choice and heterogeneous users.

In this paper the dynamic optimal design problem is formulated as a bi-level optimization problem in which the upper level describes the network performance with chosen toll levels while the lower level describes the behavior of travelers including user-specific route and departure time choice.Considering the optimal toll design problem, the aim of the road authority is to optimize system performance (e.g. to minimize the total travel time) by choosing the optimal tolls for a subset of links, within realistic constraints and subject to the dynamic traffic assignment. The aim of travelers is to maximize their own travel utility function. Modeling of travel behavior in optimal toll design problem. Generalized travel cost function is modeled by a linear combination and extended to capture (not only routetravel time) but also value of time of travelers, route toll costs, and penalties for scheduling delays. Value of time is the only class specific parameter in the generalized travel cost function. The study focused on travelers with e.g. different purposes like business trips (high value of time) and leisure trips (low value of time). Based on experienced generalizedtravel costs, each traveler is assumed to simultaneously choose the routeand departure time that he or she perceives to have the least travel costs (yielding a stochastic user equilibrium (SUE) assignment). The joint probability of choosing a specific route and departure time are given by multinomial logit (MNL) model. The relationship between the route flows and the travel times is given by the dynamic network loading component. The lower level of the optimal toll design problem (departure time and route choice component) is formulated using a variational inequality approach. It is shown that the travelers shift towards non-congested and untolled route and time periods. Furthermore, it can be observed that there are many more travelers with high value of time on tolled route than travelers with a lowvalue of time.ûFor the covering abstract see ITRD E135582.