Congestion in the bathtub

TY - JOUR

T1 - Congestion in the bathtub

AU - Fosgerau, Mogens

PY - 2015/12/1

Y1 - 2015/12/1

N2 - This paper presents a model of urban traffic congestion that allows for hypercongestion. Hypercongestion has fundamental importance for the costs of congestion and the effect of policies such as road pricing, transit provision and traffic management, treated in the paper. In the simplest version of the model, the unregulated Nash equilibrium is also the social optimum among a wide range of potential outcomes and any reasonable road pricing scheme will be welfare decreasing. Large welfare gains can be achieved through road pricing when there is hypercongestion and travelers are heterogeneous.

AB - This paper presents a model of urban traffic congestion that allows for hypercongestion. Hypercongestion has fundamental importance for the costs of congestion and the effect of policies such as road pricing, transit provision and traffic management, treated in the paper. In the simplest version of the model, the unregulated Nash equilibrium is also the social optimum among a wide range of potential outcomes and any reasonable road pricing scheme will be welfare decreasing. Large welfare gains can be achieved through road pricing when there is hypercongestion and travelers are heterogeneous.

KW - Bathtub

KW - Bottleneck

KW - Congestion

KW - Dynamic

KW - Traffic

KW - Urban

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84941253519&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1016/j.ecotra.2015.08.001

DO - 10.1016/j.ecotra.2015.08.001

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:84941253519

SN - 2212-0122

VL - 4

SP - 241

EP - 255

JO - Economics of Transportation

JF - Economics of Transportation

IS - 4

ER -