Optimal Pricing and Service for the Peak-Period Bus Commuting Inefficiency of Boarding Queuing Congestion

You-Zhi Zeng, Bin Ran, Ning Zhang, Xiaobao Yang, Jia-Jun Shen and She-Jun Deng
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You-Zhi Zeng: School of Transportation, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
Bin Ran: School of Transportation, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
Ning Zhang: School of Economics and Management, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China
Xiaobao Yang: MOE Key Laboratory for Urban Transportation Complex Systems Theory and Technology, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China
Jia-Jun Shen: College of Civil Science and Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China
She-Jun Deng: College of Civil Science and Engineering, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 10, 1-14

Abstract: This paper proposes an equilibrium bus boarding model to investigate optimal pricing and service for peak-period bus commuting inefficiency of boarding queuing congestion. Commuters are assumed to choose their optimal time-of-use decision from home or the workplace to the bus. We found that: (1) when the earliest commuter boards the bus as soon as the bus arrives at the bus station, the dynamic boarding queuing congestion toll that eliminates the boarding queuing congestion creates social optimal equilibrium and the optimal bus departure interval during the peak period; (2) the optimal bus departure interval during the peak period is the time that the preceding bus riders spend on boarding, which means the relationship between service frequency and ridership does not conform to the square root principle: the optimal bus frequency is proportional to the square root of the number of commuters.

Keywords: peak period; bus commuting inefficiency; boarding queuing congestion; equilibrium bus boarding model; optimal pricing and service (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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