The Effect of Alternative Work Schedules and Congestion Tolls on Commuter Trip Delays at a Single Bottleneck

• Main Authors: Tien-Tsyh Chen, 陳天賜
• Other Authors: Lawrence W. Lan
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 1999
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/35449568695237623826

博士 === 國立交通大學 === 交通運輸研究所 === 87 === Flexible working schedules, staggered working hours and congestion tolls are highly emphasized tactics in transportation demand management (TDM) which are used to reshape peak traffic demand to reduce congestions. This study attempts to employ user equilibrium principle and queueing theory to formulate analytic models at a single bottleneck to evaluate and compare peak traffic delays resulted from such alternative work schedules and congestion tolls. Numerical examples and sensitivity analysis are performed. In the subjects of working schedules, the results show that, traffic delays reduced by flexible working hours, compared with conventional fixed working hours, are in squared proportion to the flextime length - peak duration ratio (e/S)2. By contrast, the reduced traffic delay incurred by staggered working hours of uniform-type is linearly proportional to the ratio of staggered time length to peak hour period, (d/S). The maximum queue length reduced by flexible/staggered working schedules is also linearly proportional to the ratio of flexible or staggered time length to peak hour period, (e/S or d/S). Moreover, the staggered working hours of step-type can yield even better performance if the steps are optimized in such a manner that the staggered time multiplied by the bottleneck saturation flow rate controls the number of commuters in each step. In the subject of congestion tolls, the results show that, the benefit brought by optimal step-tolls under flexible working hours is more than the ceiling of fixed working hours. The optimal step-toll fees under staggered working hours should be lower than those under fixed working hours. At optimal step-tolls, it appears that some commuters would be reluctant to pass through the toll station at the transitions from higher step-tolls to lower ones. Introducing suboptimal step-tolls will completely remove such “reluctant queues,” however the systems performance is slightly less effective than the optimal step-tolls.