Abstract:
Road pricing has widely been considered by system planners for relieving congestion and generating revenue. The design and evaluation of different road pricing schemes are always necessary for the decision makers to ensure the potential beneficiary of road pricing and the practical implementation of the scheme. This study presents an evaluation procedure based on the use of continuum modeling approach for addressing the road pricing feasibility problem in Baltimore Metropolitan Region. In this study, Baltimore City is considered as the central business district (CBD) and the corresponding user-equilibrium, system-optimal and cordon-based charging models are setup and solved. Sensitivity analyses of total demand, total toll collected, social benefit and the location/shape of the charging cordons for this proposed model with respect to the input parameters are also completed. The study demonstrates the potential applicability of using continuum modeling approach for road pricing feasibility study in Baltimore Metropolitan Region.
