Congestion pricing, while adopted by many cities to alleviate traffic congestion, raises concerns about widening socioeconomic disparities due to its disproportionate impact on low-income travelers. In this study, we address this concern by proposing a new class of congestion pricing schemes that not only minimize congestion levels but also incorporate an equity objective to reduce cost disparities among travelers with different willingness-to-pay. Our analysis builds on a congestion game model with heterogeneous traveler populations. We present four pricing schemes that account for practical considerations, such as the ability to charge differentiated tolls to various traveler populations and the option to toll all or only a subset of edges in the network. We evaluate our pricing schemes in the calibrated freeway network of the San Francisco Bay Area. We demonstrate that the proposed congestion pricing schemes improve both efficiency (in terms of reduced average travel time) and equity (the disparities of travel costs experienced by different populations) compared to the current pricing scheme. Moreover, our pricing schemes also generate a total revenue comparable to the current pricing scheme. Our results further show that pricing schemes charging differentiated prices to traveler populations with varying willingness-to-pay lead to a more equitable distribution of travel costs compared to those that charge a homogeneous price to all.

翻译：拥堵定价虽被许多城市采用以缓解交通拥堵，但由于其对低收入出行者的不成比例影响，引发了对社会经济差距扩大的担忧。本研究通过提出一类新型拥堵定价方案，不仅最小化拥堵水平，同时纳入公平性目标以降低不同支付意愿出行者之间的成本差异。我们的分析基于异质性出行者群体的拥堵博弈模型。我们提出了四种考虑实际因素的定价方案，包括对不同出行者群体收取差异化通行费的能力，以及仅对网络中全部或部分路段收费的选项。我们在校准后的旧金山湾区高速公路网络上评估了这些定价方案。结果表明，与现行定价方案相比，所提出的拥堵定价方案在效率（以平均出行时间减少衡量）和公平性（不同群体出行成本差异）两方面均有改善。此外，我们的定价方案产生的总收入与现行方案相当。进一步研究表明，相比对所有出行者收取统一价格，对支付意愿不同的群体实施差异化定价的方案能带来更公平的出行成本分配。