Method and system for providing dynamic pricing algorithm with embedded controller for high occupancy toll lanes

A system for high occupancy toll lane management, said system comprising:

• a special purpose computer comprising:
• a sensor comprising a loop detector for sensing the presence of a vehicle;
• an imaging device comprising a video camera for capturing an image of said vehicle;
• a processor;
• a data bus coupled to said processor;
• and
• a computer-usable medium embodying computer code, said computer-usable medium being coupled to said data bus, said computer program code comprising instructions executable by said processor and configured for:
• determining vehicle input flow for said toll lane according to said sensed vehicles and captured images;
• obtaining an input-output transfer function of a vehicle flow with respect to said toll lane according to said vehicle input flow, utilizing a traffic simulation module;
• utilizing a feedback controller, avoiding an unstable traffic condition on said toll lane due to a time delay between the input flow and an output flow with respect to said toll lane, due to a price regulation and due to a transient larger than a certain amount caused by an integral part of said feedback controller due to traffic;
• deriving a driver behavior preference model based on a relationship between a toll rate and a plurality of characteristics of said toll lane and a general purpose lane, based on communication from the loop detector and video camera, wherein said plurality of characteristics comprise a proportion of vehicles in said toll lane compared to a total number of vehicles, vehicle density flow, travel times on said toll lane compared to travel time on said general purpose lane, and value of time;
• and
• setting said toll rate in real-time according to said feedback controller and said behavior preference model in order to satisfy a desired performance metric.

A system comprising:

• a special purpose computer comprising:
• a sensing device comprising a loop detector for sensing the presence of a vehicle;
• an image capturing device comprising a video camera for capturing an image of said vehicle;
• and
• a non-transitory processor-readable medium storing code representing instructions to cause a computer to perform a process to provide feedback based dynamic pricing for a high occupancy toll lane, said code comprising code to:
• determine vehicle input flow for said toll lane according to said sensed vehicles and captured images;
• obtain an input-output transfer function of a vehicle flow with respect to said toll lane according to said vehicle input flow, utilizing a traffic simulation module;
• utilizing a feedback controller, avoid an unstable traffic condition on said toll lane due to a time delay between the input flow and an output flow with respect to said toll lane, due to a price regulation and due to a transient larger than a certain amount caused by an integral part of said feedback controller due to traffic;
• derive a driver behavior preference model based on a relationship between a toll rate and a plurality of characteristics of said toll lane and a general purpose lane based on communication from the loop detector and video camera, wherein said plurality of characteristics comprise a proportion of vehicles in said toll lane compared to a total number of vehicles, vehicle density flow, travel times on said toll lane compared to travel time on said general purpose lane, and value of time;
• and,
• setting said toll rate in real-time according to said feedback controller and said behavior preference model in order to satisfy a desired performance metric.