Optimizing the freeway toll rates for freight transportation following truck ban policy on central business district
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59490/ejtir.2026.26.2.7798Keywords:
toll optimization, multiclass traffic assignment model, passenger vehicles and trucks solution algorithmAbstract
The truck ban policy on freeways in central business districts (CBD) is extensively used in China nowadays to improve traffic safety and reduce traffic congestion. However, this policy will drastically impact freight transportation, especially when the freeway truck volume is high. To mitigate the negative effects and encourage truck drivers to use alternative freeways, this study proposes a freeway tolling problem for different types of trucks to reduce travel costs following the truck ban policy in CBD. It is formulated as a bi-level optimization problem. The upper-level problem optimizes the freeway toll rates for different types of trucks to reduce the total travel cost (TTC) of the network. The lower-level problem is a multiclass traffic assignment model to characterize the equilibrium flow mixed with passenger vehicles and different types of trucks following the toll strategy. The bi-level problem is solved using a line search algorithm developed based on a feasible direction method. Application of the proposed method in Ningbo, China, finds that the proposed solution algorithm can efficiently solve the bi-level problem and converges only after 11 iterations. Compared to the initial state where the truck ban is not implemented, the optimal tolling strategy can effectively reduce the TTC of the network by 8.5%, with an increase of only 1.15% for all trucks. This indicates that the proposed method can effectively nudge truck drivers to use alternative routes with a minor rise in travel costs. Therefore, it can help traffic managers design better strategies to avoid the resistance of truck users following the truck ban policy in CBD.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Bingjie Yang
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