Novel metamodel based optimization approach for game theoretical analyses in mobility ecosystem and its demonstration via a case study about toll competition

Abstract

First, a concept of novel metamodel-based optimization, in which a transport economics inspired model acts as a metamodel over an underlying set-up of directly interfaced transport models, is discussed. It is hypothesized that this approach allows to solve transportation problems, at a feasible computational cost, with due consideration to relevant interactions between different stakeholders/(sub)systems. Then, a case study concerning toll competition between a city and its neighboring rural municipalities is developed as a proof of concept. The metamodel for this case study involves the two players optimizing their objectives based on a schematic network and simplified cost and demand functions, whereas the underlying set-up is a Static Traffic Assignment over the physical network with physical origin-destination demand. Preliminary results suggest that this approach offers the lower computational effort required for the analysis of scenarios involving significant interactions between the stakeholders/(sub)systems and when such interactions are not important, it can be a less accurate but faster alternative to contemporary approaches.