Analysis of Toll Setting for Japanese Highway Networks Based on Social Optimization

In recent years in Japan, there have been many debates of setting highway toll charges as a part of policy discussions. However, although these debates should be analyzed objectively based on quantitative analysis, it cannot be denied that the psychological impact of the proposals is being given more priority. Considering that highways are a type of public infrastructure, it is appropriate that tolls be set so that both highways and normal roads are effectively utilized. In this research, we propose a simple toll setting model for highways to minimize the overall travel time in cities. In addition, the proposed model is applied to Japanese highway network, and the optimum toll setting for the highway network is discussed from the perspective of social optimization.