Optimizing Highway Tolls with an Intelligent Simulated Annealing Method

Previous studies on private highways generally involve network equilibrium models with link-specific and hence link-additive toll charges. In reality, toll charges for private highways depend on the entry and exit points, which are not always link-additive. In this study, a network transform method is adopted to tackle the traffic assignment problem with link non-additive tolls. We formulate and solve the optimal toll design problem of private highways using a bi-level programming approach, associated with an intelligent simulated annealing algorithm. The proposed method circumvents the difficulty of path enumeration procedure.