System Optimal Routing and Distribution of Benefits on National Road Networks

Rerouting drivers from selfish route choices to system-optimal traffic patterns has the potential to improve the performance of existing infrastructure. Previous research has looked into assessing the potential of rerouting through the empirical price of anarchy, a measure of network efficiency. However, studies using real-world measurements have been limited by methodological accuracy and network size. Also, they have lacked understanding of the spatial distribution of benefits from rerouting and the relationship with marginal external cost road charges that can be used for implementation. In this article, we create an accurate data-driven traffic assignment model of England's Strategic Road Network. We use it to calculate the national price of anarchy, which is found to be almost 1 implying gains from rerouting at the national scale are minimal and smaller than in other studies. The results show the distribution of rerouting benefits varies strongly with different network zones and demand profiles. This did not match the distribution of marginal external cost charges. Some zones have noticeable benefits from rerouting although the overall network benefit is small, however, these zones do not coincide with where the largest road charges have to be applied for system-optimal rerouting. These results have implications for rerouting implementation.