Inside the queue: hypercongestion and road pricing in a continuous time - continuous place model of traffic congestion


== Abstract ==

This paper develops a continuous time - continuous place model of road traffic congestion, based on car-following theory. The model fully integrates two archetype representations of traffic congestion technology, namely "flow congestion", originating in the works of Pigou, and "vertical queuing" models, pioneered by Vickrey. Because a closed-form analytical solution of the formal model does not exist, its behaviour is explored in a numerical exercise. In a setting with endogenous departure time choice and with a bottleneck halfway the route, it is shown that "hypercongestion" can arise as a dynamic - transitional and local - equilibrium phenomenon. Also dynamic toll schedules are explored. It is found that a toll rule based on an intuitive dynamic and space-varying generalization of the standard Pigouvian tax rule can hardly be improved upon. A naïve application of a toll schedule based on Vickrey´s bottleneck model, in contrast, performs much worse and actually even reduces welfare.


== Original document ==

The different versions of the original document can be found in:

* [http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0094-1190(03)00078-0 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0094-1190(03)00078-0]

* [http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.337340 http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.337340]

* [http://hdl.handle.net/10419/115586 http://hdl.handle.net/10419/115586]

* [http://www-sre.wu.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa02/cd-rom/papers/068.pdf http://www-sre.wu.ac.at/ersa/ersaconfs/ersa02/cd-rom/papers/068.pdf]

* [https://research.vu.nl/en/publications/49afba3e-3911-4fc3-ae86-c7214bb40823 https://research.vu.nl/en/publications/49afba3e-3911-4fc3-ae86-c7214bb40823]

* [https://research.vu.nl/en/publications/9f18b3fb-b36c-461f-9a1c-0026c6ec6368 https://research.vu.nl/en/publications/9f18b3fb-b36c-461f-9a1c-0026c6ec6368]

* [https://www.narcis.nl/publication/RecordID/oai%3Aresearch.vu.nl%3Apublications%2F49afba3e-3911-4fc3-ae86-c7214bb40823 https://www.narcis.nl/publication/RecordID/oai%3Aresearch.vu.nl%3Apublications%2F49afba3e-3911-4fc3-ae86-c7214bb40823],
: [https://ideas.repec.org/p/wiw/wiwrsa/ersa02p068.html https://ideas.repec.org/p/wiw/wiwrsa/ersa02p068.html],
: [https://research.vu.nl/en/publications/inside-the-queue-hypercongestion-and-road-pricing-in-a-continuous-2 https://research.vu.nl/en/publications/inside-the-queue-hypercongestion-and-road-pricing-in-a-continuous-2],
: [https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa02p068 https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wiw:wiwrsa:ersa02p068],
: [https://research.vu.nl/ws/files/1845537/02062.pdf https://research.vu.nl/ws/files/1845537/02062.pdf],
: [https://academic.microsoft.com/#/detail/2102780884 https://academic.microsoft.com/#/detail/2102780884]

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DOIS: 10.1016/s0094-1190(03)00078-0 10.2139/ssrn.337340