The Effect of the Uniform Credit Scheme on Modal-split and Pareto-improving Property

In a competitive two-mode network, this paper aims at exploring the effect of the uniform credit scheme on modal-split and Pareto-improving property while taking into account the heterogeneous VOT of users. Under the uniform credit scheme, an amount of uniform credits are charged for usage of highway bottleneck according to the pre-defined credit charging scales. Each eligible user is initially endowed an equal amount of credits, which are allowed to trade in a competitive market, thus competitively determining the credit price. The focus of this study is to investigate how credit charging scales affect the modal split pattern and the Pareto-improving property (making everyone better off). The analytical result shows that the uniform credit scheme always make users transfer to transit mode to some extent, and the Pareto-improving property is always true for the homogeneous case regardless of the credit charging scale. However, for the heterogeneous case, the numerical study shows that, Pareto-improving property only satisfy when the credit charging scale factor exceeds a special value.