Mitigation of expressway traffic congestion through transportation demand management with toll discount

• Published in: IET intelligent transport systems Vol. 4; no. 1; p. 50
• Main Authors: Xing, J, Takahashi, H, Kameoka, H
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Stevenage The Institution of Engineering & Technology 01.03.2010
• Subjects: Congestion; Demand; Discounts; Expressways; Time division multiplexing; Traffic engineering; Traffic flow; Transportation
• ISSN: 1751-956X; 1751-9578
• DOI: 10.1049/iet-its.2009.0032

The result of four transportation demand management (TDM) implementations, in three major traffic concentration periods of 2007-2008 with discounts on tolls for electronic toll collection vehicles, as intended to mitigate traffic congestion in an uninterrupted flow section of the Tomei Expressway is described. Although traffic congestion continues to occur, partly because of the increased daily traffic demand and the insufficient shift of traffic demand from peak hours to off-peak hours. It is estimated that the total delay is reduced by 27%-35% relative to the case, in which there is no TDM implementation, resulting in a reduction in CO2 emission of 6%-8% and 65 ton-c for the four TDM implementations. Apparently, it is also difficult to expect a high shift rate of traffic, if the amount of the discount is less than approximately 1,000 yen. The estimated midpoint arc elasticity of the toll-discount time period, ranges from -0.30 to -0.72, depending upon the holiday type and the details of the discount time period.