Research On Congestion Pricing Based On The Shift Of Travel Mode

Since the reform and opening, the rising living standard has given rise to a higher demand of quality travel services. Private car ownership therefore is also raising all the way, which causes traffic congestion frequently in many big cities. On account of the limited resources, soaring traffic demand can never be satisfied by simply increasing traffic supply. Accordingly, traffic demand management now is perceived as one of the effective ways to alleviate traffic congestion. As a market-oriented measure for demand management, congestion pricing is attracting more and more attention in recent years. However, the full play of it depends largely on people’s reactions to congestion charging as well as the service standards of public transportation. Under this context, this paper tries to delve into the working mechanism of congestion pricing; and a SP questionnaire is carried out to get a deep understanding of the transfer willing of private car to public transportation; then the surplus capacity of public transportation on rush hours and traffic index are taken into consideration to build the mode of congestion pricing based on the shift of travel. The study will help enhance the feasibility of congestion pricing schemes and its economic and social benefits.On the basis of the present theories and researches, this paper starts with a detailed analysis of the causes of congestion pricing and external costs brought by it, which casts light upon the economic basis of congestion pricing. Secondly, market theory and behavior theory are applied to discuss the characteristics of traffic demand and the mechanism of travel mode choice. And the willingness of travel mode shift from private car to public transportation travel is investigated to establish the model of travel mode shift. Also, SP questionnaire for studying travel behaviors is designed based on uniform design and an online survey is carried out to obtain data samples. Parameters of the model of travel mode shift are calibrated through data analyses. Also, data analyses show that the implementation of congestion charging will definitely transfer traffic demand to high load public traffic, but the effectiveness of it will be influenced by the quality of public transportation. Finally, a new method for calculating the rate of congestion pricing is established on the basis of the mode of travel mode shift, which integrates the basic theories of market pricing and disaggregate pricing. In addition, the model for computing the initial rate is built on the basis of marginal cost theory as well as traffic index. Also, a numerical example based on Shenzhen traffic index is given to verify the newly-established computing model. The study in this paper perfects the theory of congestion pricing and provides technical support for its implementation, which makes significant sense to alleviate urban traffic congestion.