Surrogate-based toll optimization in a large-scale heterogeneously congested network

Research output: Contribution to journalResearch articleContributedpeer-review

Contributors

  • Ziyuan Gu - , University of New South Wales (Author)
  • S. Travis Waller - , University of New South Wales (Author)
  • Meead Saberi - , University of New South Wales (Author)

Abstract

Toll optimization in a large-scale dynamic traffic network is typically characterized by an expensive-to-evaluate objective function. In this paper, we propose two toll-level problems (TLPs) integrated with a large-scale simulation-based dynamic traffic assignment model of Melbourne, Australia. The first TLP aims to control the pricing zone (PZ) through a time-varying joint distance and delay toll such that the network fundamental diagram (NFD) of the PZ does not enter the congested regime. The second TLP is built upon the first TLP by further considering the minimization of the heterogeneity of congestion distribution in the PZ. To solve the two TLPs, a computationally efficient surrogate-based optimization method, that is, regressing kriging with expected improvement sampling, is applied to approximate the simulation input–output mapping, which can balance well between local exploitation and global exploration. Results show that the two optimal TLP solutions reduce the average travel time in the PZ (entire network) by 29.5% (1.4%) and 21.6% (2.5%), respectively. Reducing the heterogeneity of congestion distribution achieves higher network flows in the PZ and a lower average travel time or a larger total travel time saving in the entire network.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)638-653
Number of pages16
JournalComputer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering
Volume34
Issue number8
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2019
Peer-reviewedYes
Externally publishedYes

External IDs

ORCID /0000-0002-2939-2090/work/141543724