Congestion in a city with a central bottleneck

A-Tier
Journal: Journal of Urban Economics
Year: 2012
Volume: 71
Issue: 3
Pages: 269-277

Authors (2)

Fosgerau, Mogens (Københavns Universitet) de Palma, André (not in RePEc)

Score contribution per author:

2.011 = (α=2.01 / 2 authors) × 2.0x A-tier

α: calibrated so average coauthorship-adjusted count equals average raw count

Abstract

We consider dynamic congestion in an urban setting where trip origins are spatially distributed. All travelers must pass through a downtown bottleneck in order to reach their destination in the CBD. Each traveler chooses departure time to maximize general concave scheduling utility. We find that, at equilibrium, travelers sort according to their distance to the destination; the queue is always unimodal regardless of the spatial distribution of trip origins. We construct a welfare maximizing tolling regime, which eliminates congestion. All travelers located beyond a critical distance from the CBD gain from tolling, even when toll revenues are not redistributed, while nearby travelers lose. We discuss our results in the context of acceptability of tolling policies.

Technical Details

RePEc Handle
repec:eee:juecon:v:71:y:2012:i:3:p:269-277
Journal Field
Urban
Author Count
2
Added to Database
2026-01-25