Effect of advanced traveler information systems and road pricing in a network subject to non-recurrent congestion. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2008.12.001

Abstract

The effect of the application of advanced transport information system (ATIS) and road
pricing is studied in a transportation system under non-recurrent congestion. A stochastic
network deterministic user equilibrium model (SNDUE) with elastic demand is formulated
and used to evaluate the welfare and private impacts of different market penetrations of
ATIS, together with road pricing for a simple network. Both marginal first-best road pricing
and a second-best fixed road pricing are considered. The incentives of private users to use
ATIS are analyzed and the characteristics of optimum tolls as a function of ATIS market
penetration are shown. We conclude that ATIS is an efficient and necessary tool to reduce
the effects of non-recurrent incidents in a transportation network, especially when nonrecurrent congestion causes a significant deterioration of operational conditions of the network. If the impact of non-recurrent incidents on free flow costs is small or is reduced only
to congestion effects, the use of road pricing would be more efficient. Social benefits
obtained when jointly implementing ATIS and road pricing are practically the same
whether first-best or second-best road pricing is used. Considering the private costs perceived by the network users, and the benefits experienced by equipped users, the maximum level of market penetration achieved could be limited because private benefits
disappear after certain market penetration is obtained.