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Details of Grant 

EPSRC Reference: EP/C549295/1
Title: A Theoretical Approach to Deriving Practical Road Pricing Cordons with Investment in Capacity
Principal Investigator: May, Professor AD
Other Investigators:
Watling, Professor D
Researcher Co-Investigators:
Professor S Shepherd Dr A Sumalee
Project Partners:
Department: Institute for Transport Studies
Organisation: University of Leeds
Scheme: Standard Research (Pre-FEC)
Starts: 01 October 2005 Ends: 30 September 2008 Value (£): 278,257
EPSRC Research Topic Classifications:
Transport Ops & Management
EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications:
Transport Systems and Vehicles
Related Grants:
Panel History:  
Summary on Grant Application Form
Given the success of the London congestion charging scheme, it is likely that other cities in the UK will follow in their foot steps and implement some sort of cordon charging scheme with the aim of reducing congestion and raising money for other investments. Typically a transport planner would design a cordon scheme by expert judgement. However our previous research has shown that using mathematical approaches and network models of cities can bring about significant improvements in the design. A mathematically derived cordon can increase benefits to society by as much as 80% compared to a traditional judgmental approach.Our research will develop algorithms for use with models of towns and cities which aim to produce better designs for both cordon based charging systems and investments in road capacity. To do this we split the problem into two distinct steps, the first is to optimise charges and capacity changes for given locations; the second is to optimise the locations given any practical constraints from the planners or politicians. Next we will combine the two steps to come up with a scheme which optimises both location and levels of charges and changes to capacity.Alongside our research will be a PhD study. The student will enhance the behavioural models and algorithms to deal with differences which exist between drivers in the general population and to account for departure time choices to avoid congestion or charges. This is a difficult mathematical problem to solve and apply to a general network model but enhancing the model in this way should provide even better designs in the future.Finally, all our algorithms will be tested using a well respected traffic model for a realistic network and so provide a ready to use tool for our transport planners.
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Organisation Website: http://www.leeds.ac.uk