Park-and-Ride Network Equilibrium with Heterogeneous Commuters and Parking Space Constraint

A dynamic user equilibrium (DUE) model of heterogeneous commuters' travel choice behaviors including departure time and path and travel mode choices in a schematic park-and-ride network is developed. Commuters have three transportation modes to choose from in a peak period: private car, rail transit, and a combination of private car and rail transit (i.e., an intermodal transportation mode). Two types of DUE patterns are derived with and without the parking space constraint. In this study, an optimal park-and-ride parking fee scheme is proposed: commuters' travel choice behaviors are characterized by the developed trimodal multiclass DUE model. The optimal park-and-ride parking fee scheme is formulated as a bilevel program in which the upper-level problem is to find the optimal parking fee for improving network performance and the lower-level problem is to evaluate network performance in equilibrium. Because the DUE solution may not be unique, the authors aim to improve the network performance in the worst and best cases. Through numerical tests, it is demonstrated that the parking space constraint has a significant influence on the departure and route choices of commuters and should be considered as an important factor in park-and-ride commuting pattern analysis and parking fee management in order to avoid a misleading decision.