Step tolling in an activity-based bottleneck model

- Analyze the properties of activity-based bottleneck model with linear marginal utilities.
- Compare step tolling in activity-based bottleneck model with constant and linear marginal utilities.
- Investigate step tolling in activity-based bottleneck model with heterogeneous commuters.
- Ignoring the preference heterogeneity of commuters would underestimate the efficacy of a step toll.

This paper investigates the step tolling problem in an activity-based bottleneck model in which activity scheduling utilities of commuters at home and at work vary by the time of day. The commuters choose their departure times from home to work in the morning to maximize their own scheduling utility. Step tolling models with homogeneous and heterogeneous preferences are presented. The properties of the models and the optimal step toll schemes with constant and linear time-varying marginal activity utilities are analytically explored and compared. It was found that for a given number of toll steps the efficacy of a step toll in terms of queuing removal rate is higher in the activity-based bottleneck model with linear marginal utilities than in the conventional bottleneck model with constant marginal utilities, and ignoring the preference heterogeneity of commuters would underestimate the efficacy of a step toll.