Efficiency and Equity Analysis of Toll Pricing on Sydney Harbour Bridge with Heterogeneous Travellers

Sydney Harbour Bridge is a key transport infrastructure that connects North Sydney and Sydney Central Business District (CBD). To alleviate the congestion on Sydney Harbour Bridge, NSW Roads and Maritime Services imposes a time of day tolling between $2.5 and $4 on the southbound traffic to Sydney CBD. This study develops mathematical models for formulating the toll pricing problem on Sydney Harbour Bridge considering that different travellers may have different value-of-times (VOTs). The models examine quantitatively the effect of different toll levels on the efficiency (in terms of the total generalized travel time and generalized travel cost of all travellers) and equity (in terms of the ratio of generalized travel cost among different traveller classes). The proposed models can serve as a useful decision-support tool for NSW Roads and Maritime Services.