Events Calendar

METRANS SEMINAR SERIES

Speaker: Dr. Peter Gordon , Professor, USC School of Policy, Planning, and Development

Talk Title: Peak – Load Pricing on L.A.’s Freeways: Modeling and Simulations

Abstract: Peak-load pricing has been seen as a way to internalize externalities and, at the same time, as a set of incentives to shift some peak-hour trips to off-peak periods. The policy has also been viewed as a mechanism to generate revenues. But it is an open question how travelers trade off time for money and respond to peak-off-peak pricing differentials. This generates some timely and related questions, including: 1) How can we model the activity location and traffic implications for multiple time-of-day periods in a major metropolitan area? 2) What are the network level-of-service and urban development effects of implementing peak-load pricing on selected routes? It is possible to conduct simulations on actual highway networks to treat these questions, but none of the many existing basic urban models are able to examine the issues of simultaneous route choice and time-of-day choice involving millions of travelers, thousands of traffic network zones, and hundreds of thousands of network links in an equilibrium system.

Lewis Hall(RGL) Room 209

12:00 Noon - Lunch / 12:20-1:30 PM - Seminar

Our research addresses these questions by extending the Southern California Planning Model (SCPM) so that it can be used to determine the time-of-day, trip distribution, and network traffic effects of various pricing plans for the greater L.A. (five-county) metropolitan area. The model estimates improvements in levels of services throughout the highway network for various toll charges. It examines how drivers trade off route-choice with time-of-day choice against the option of traveling less. Our approach estimates the implied revenues by local jurisdiction as well as possible land use effects in terms of altered development pressures throughout the region. The effects for two different toll scenarios are compared and policy implications are discussed.

RSVP* for lunch to Shawn Gong, TGong@usc.edu by Noon, Tues. Sept. 14

The seminar will start promptly at 12:20 pm.


Biography: Peter Gordon is a Professor in the University of Southern California's School of Policy, Planning, and Development. His research interests are in applied urban economics. Dr. Gordon and his colleagues have developed various economic impact models that they apply to study the effects of infrastructure investments, disruptions from natural events, or terrorist attacks.

In addition, he continues to be interested in urban structure and economic growth along with the associated policy implications. Peter Gordon has published in many of the major urban planning, urban transportation and regional science journals. His recent papers are available at www-rcf.usc.edu/~pgordon. He has consulted for local, state and federal agencies, the World Bank, the United Nations and many private groups. Gordon received the Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in 1971.

Host: METRANS

Location: Ralph And Goldy Lewis Hall (RGL) - 209

Audiences: Everyone Is Invited

Contact: Georgia Lum