| The purpose of any equilibrium modeling is to ensure that both demand and supply relationships are satisfied. The term equilibrium itself may be confusing to the average transportation planner. It may imply partial or global equilibrium. In the short run, assuming land use patterns as fixed, it may be possible to analyze the demand and supply side of transportation to determine an equilibrium with respect to the variables confronting the transportation user, such as mode, route, destination, choice, etc. Such an equilibrium can be classified as a partial short-run equilibrium. The analysis of this equilibrium provides insights into better ways of management of transportation systems. This could be brought about by regulating traffic flows in urban areas, inducing efficiencies in scheduling public transit vehicles, by determining better pricing policies, etc.;This dissertation proposal addresses the issues of partial equilibrium analysis and the determination of pricing policies as a result of this analysis. This proposal is divided into four different parts. While the first two chapters address the inadequacies of existent methods in equilibrium analysis and development of models to overcome these shortcomings, the latter half of the paper is devoted to optimum pricing strategies relating to public and private transportation, taking into account a variety of economic and physical constraints that may, in reality, well dominate pricing issues. A conclusion summarizes the contributions of my thesis to transportation research while proposing a set of recommendations on topics to be investigated further in equilibrium analysis and pricing. |
