Civil & Environmental Engineering
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2221
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Item EXISTENCE OF UNUSED MANAGED CAPACITY ON DEDICATED LANES AND AN ALTERNATIVE ON HOW TO SELL IT VIA AUCTIONS(2016) Olarte, Rafael Ernesto; HAGHANI, ALI; Civil Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation verifies whether the following two hypotheses are true: (1) High-occupancy/toll lanes (and therefore other dedicated lanes) have capacity that could still be used; (2) such unused capacity (or more precisely, “unused managed capacity”) can be sold successfully through a real-time auction. To show that the second statement is true, this dissertation proposes an auction-based metering (ABM) system, that is, a mechanism that regulates traffic that enters the dedicated lanes. Participation in the auction is voluntary and can be skipped by paying the toll or by not registering to the new system. This dissertation comprises the following four components: a measurement of unused managed capacity on an existing HOT facility, a game-theoretic model of an ABM system, an operational description of the ABM system, and a simulation-based evaluation of the system. Some other and more specific contributions of this dissertation include the following: (1) It provides a definition and a methodology for measuring unused managed capacity and another important variable referred as “potential volume increase”. (2) It proves that the game-theoretic model has a unique Bayesian Nash equilibrium. (3) And it provides a specific road design that can be applied or extended to other facilities. The results provide evidence that the hypotheses are true and suggest that the ABM system would benefit a public operator interested in reducing traffic congestion significantly, would benefit drivers when making low-reliability trips (such as work-to-home trips), and would potentially benefit a private operator interested in raising revenue.Item A COMPARISON BETWEEN AN ORIGIN BASED METHOD AND A NONLINEAR COMPLEMENTARITY BASED METHOD FOR SOLVING THE TRAFFIC ASSIGNMENT PROBLEM(2009) Olarte, Rafael Ernesto; Haghani, Ali; Civil Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis compares Bar-Gera's Method and Aashtiani's Method for solving the static traffic assignment problem with fixed demand. Specifically, it compares the computational time spent by their corresponding algorithms in thirteen networks based on real cities. It also verifies whether the assumptions made by both methods and the data used allowed such a comparison. To implement Aashtiani's algorithm, a computer code was appropriately designed. To implement Bar-Gera's algorithm, a non-open source application was used. Numerical results showed mixed results but still showed the following trends: (1) Aashtiani's algorithm seems to be faster when solving complex networks, (2) Bar-Gera's algorithm is almost always faster for very high levels of accuracy while Aashtiani's algorithm is faster for lower levels of accuracy, and (3) Bar-Gera's algorithm almost always increases its speed consistently as more accuracy is demanded. Numerical results also showed that for small networks (specifically, when the number of arcs times the number of links is less than 1.0E+7), both algorithms spent practically no more than one second, rending these networks not recommendable for carrying out future comparisons. As expected, Bar-Gera's method required less memory. This thesis also presents a unified terminology for both methods and adapted Aashtiani's formulation to this specific problem.