Time-dependent transit fare optimization with elastic and spatially distributed demand

Motivated by the lack of microeconomic models that optimize time-dependent transit fares based on realistic demand formulations, this paper presents a model for design pricing scheme considering elastic and spatiotemporally distributed demand. To spatial distribution demand, line with multiple origin–destination pairs is considered. cyclical fluctuations, operations in one day are divided into time periods. In proposed we fares, headway, vehicle capacity, maximum fleet size, objective maximizing social welfare, subject to size capacity constraints. We find could avoid cross-subsidization among travelers different Under both schemes, headways satisfy same optimality condition: total rider waiting cost equals fixed supplier side. also demonstrate resource constraints (vehicle size) can be binding periods, unlike usual assumption literature only period highest Two extensions (considering financial constraint variable roundtrip time) investigated. The developed used facilitate schemes practical applications.