Research On Tolling Strategy Of Intercity Expressways

Intercity expressway is the inevitable product of enhanced radiation of central cityeconomy. For the lack of land resources, the high cost of relocation and construction and theneed of urban landscape protection, the speed of the intercity expressway construction in thefuture will be slower. Then, the growth rate of the intercity expressway mileage will be lowerthan the growth rate of the urban traffic volume. So, how to use the current intercityexpressway effectively, improve the service level, and meet the need of urban developmentand production and living has become an issue needed to be urgently addressed for localgovernment, transportation authorities and expressway management enterprise. At present, thetolling of intercity expressway has not played role in controlling traffic volume amongdifferent intercity expressways. And the issues of traffic equilibrium between intercityexpressways and ordinary highways, and the raising of fund for maintenance after tollingdeadline are all needed to be solved.On the basis of the characteristics and traffic characteristics of intercity expressways andoperation rules and the supply and demand theoretical of intercity expressways, differentintercity expressway pricing strategy and pricing standard models were proposed andcalculated by analyzing from unsaturated traffic flow condition, saturated traffic flowcondition and cost-oriented. That provides theoretical reference and solution ideas for thecorrect tolls pricing, regulate operations and solving future problems of intercity expressway.Firstly, define the study of objects and issues, and summarize the research about pricingtheory, expressway toll policy, expressway toll pricing methods and pricing factors, andcomment on the existing research. Secondly, through the data statistics, analyze thecharacteristics of traffic demand structure, traffic flow time, traffic flow spatiality, traffic flowstructure, and profoundly analysis of intercity expressway traffic flow characteristics andoperation rules, to provide support for designing intercity expressway pricing methods.Thirdly, in the framework of supply, demand and prices theory, analysis intercity expresswayneeds from influencing factors, price elasticity of demand, demand utility and alternative, thendetermine different intercity expressway pricing strategy of unsaturated traffic flow condition,saturated traffic flow condition and cost-oriented. Fourthly, through the definition of unsaturated traffic flow and analysis of unsaturated travel behavior, combined withexpressway pricing factors analysis, objectives, and principles, build bilevel programmingmodel that adapt properties of unsaturated traffic, then solve that using genetic algorithms,analyze by selecting a specific expressway. Fifthly, through the identification of saturatedtraffic flow, combined with analysis of expressway pricing factors in saturated traffic flow,build Logit analysis model, and analyze by selecting a specific expressway. Sixthly, throughthe summary analysis of financial issues and scientific judgment of long-term affectingfactors trends, and the calculation results of expressway maintenance costs, build bilevelprogramming model that adapt maintenance costs, then solve that using simulated annealingalgorithm, analyze by selecting a specific expressway.The achievements obtained of this research are including:(1) intercity expressways hasthe characteristics of large traffic volume, complex structure, obvious traffic volumefluctuation, large ratio of commuting traffic, large ratio of coach wans and low ratio of truck.(2) Demand price elasticity of intercity expressways is high in the period of unsaturated trafficflow condition, but supply price elasticity is low; and in the period of saturated traffic flowcondition, demand price elasticity is low, but supply price elasticity is high.(3) The tollingstretgy of unsaturated traffic flow condition, saturated traffic flow condition and andmaintenance cost oriented are proposed.(4) Bi-level pricing model of intercity expressways inunsaturated traffic flow condition is established, considering of users’ characteristics of travelchoice behavior;(5) Double matrix game pricing model of intercity expressways in saturatedtraffic flow condition is established based on the analysis of traffic demand transfer;(6)Bi-level pricing model of intercity expressways based on the tolling stretgy oriented bymaintenance cost after tolling period.