Thursday, March 11 @ 12:15PM
About the Webinar:
Managed lanes (MLs) offer travelers a congestion-free alternative for a price. The two most common pricing mechanisms are variable tolls (based on time of day) and dynamic pricing (based on congestion). In theory, dynamic tolls should be able to regulate demand for MLs more effectively than variable tolls. This study analyzed extensive traffic data sets from both variably priced MLs and dynamically priced MLs to determine the benefits and drawbacks of each pricing method along with their effects on congestion. Download Handout
About the Presenter:
Dr. Mark Burris is a Professor of Civil Engineering at Texas A&M University and a Research Engineer with the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. His main area of interest is traveler behavior in response to pricing, particularly congestion (or value) pricing. He has served in an evaluation and monitoring role for managed/express lane projects around the country. He has also led many studies and surveys on how travelers will react to innovative tolling strategies and the costs and benefits associated with those projects. He recently completed a 6 year term as chair of TRB’s transportation economics committee.
His research has provided a better understanding of traveler behavior in response to tolls and helped to improve our ability to predict this reaction. Due to his experience in this area he was asked to serve on the NCHRP panel overseeing a research project on “Estimating Toll Road Demand and Revenue” and was invited by the FHWA to attend an “Expert Forum on Road Pricing and Modeling”. Prior to joining Texas A&M in August 2001, he was a senior research associate at the Center for Urban Transportation Research (CUTR) in Tampa, Florida.
Sayantan Biswas is a graduate student in Transportation Engineering at Texas A&M University. He is working as a Graduate Research Assistant with the Transportation Operations Group at the Texas A&M Transportation Institute. His primary research interest is in congestion pricing with focus on Managed Lanes. He loves analyzing large traffic and toll data. He has worked extensively to analyze the priced lanes in Minnesota, California, Colorado, and Texas. He also has more than two years of experience working in Transportation Design.
Recording
The recording is available on YouTube.
Please take a few moments to complete the evaluation.