 Measuring marginal congestion costs of urban transportation: Do networks matter?Elena Safirova, Kenneth Gillingham and Sébastien Houde Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, 2007, vol. 41, issue 8, 734-749 Abstract: In determining the marginal cost of congestion, economists have traditionally relied upon directly measuring traffic congestion on network links, disregarding any "network effects," since the latter are difficult to estimate. While for simple networks the comparison of the network-based congestion costs with the link-based ones can be done within a theoretical framework, it is important to know whether such network effects in real large-scale networks are quantitatively significant. In this paper we use a strategic transportation planning model (START) to compare marginal congestion costs computed link-by-link with measures taking into account network effects. We find that while in aggregate network effects are not significant, congestion measured on a single link is a poor predictor of total congestion costs imposed by travel on that link. Also, we analyze the congestion proliferation effect on the network to see how congestion is distributed within an urban area. Date: 2007 Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:transa:v:41:y:2007:i:8:p:734-749 Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from Access Statistics for this article Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice is currently edited by John (J.M.) Rose More articles in Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice from Elsevier |
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