Queuing Analysis at Toll Stations under the Toll-free Policy in Holidays in Shanghai

In order to stimulate the holiday economy and ensure smooth travel, the Chinese government decided to exempt the tolls of small passenger cars on major holidays since the National Day on October 1st, 2012. Taking a toll station in Shanghai as a case study, this paper analyzed its queuing situation on the first day of Tomb-sweeping day holiday before and after the toll-free policy with a queuing theory model. How to balance the induced traffic and the limited highway capacity with optimal toll strategies was also discussed. The results show that with total departure traffic volume increasing and an average service time decreasing, the average queue length and congestion duration became longer for the first year after the implementation of the policy. But then queuing situations were improved markedly in later years with increasing percentage of ETC users. The conclusions may benefit policy makers for transition process of different toll strategies around the world.