Improving Operational Efficiency for a Two-Way Highway Toll Station

Abstract

This paper addresses the over congestion issue at a real highway toll station and proposes the optimal design and operation policy to improve the overall system performance — minimizing both customer waiting and toll station’s operational costs. Based on the empirical data of Liuzhong Highway Tianshui Road toll station (LHTR-station), the real-time arrival rates of the traffic flows in both directions have been characterized via statistical analysis. Using an M/D/1 queuing model and stationary independent period-by-period (SIPP) and peak-hour approximations for the time-varying arrival rates, (i.e. two hours per period and 12 periods a day), we develop the optimal staffing levels in both directions of highway toll station. Then, the optimal staffing schedules are developed for different scenarios, for example, four-hour working a day, six-hour working a day, eight-hour working a day, and four-hour working and two-hour resting and four-hour working a day. The operating costs are compared for different schedules used in practice. Finally, using the empirical data of LHTR-station, we evaluate the performance improvement with the schedules suggested by our analysis. It has been found that the operation efficiency for LHTR-station can be improved significantly. This paper shows the value of using the operations research models innovatively to solve real-world problems.

Key Words:

• Operational efficiency
• queuing theory
• scheduling
• staffing
• two-way highway toll station.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Li-hong He

Li-hong He received her Ph.D. in Solid Mechanics in 2005 at Lanzhou University, China. She is a professor at School of Management, Lanzhou University. Her research interests focus on supply chain management, operations research, applied statistics, modeling and optimization of complex management system.

Sen-biao Li

Sen-biao Li received his Bachelor in Business Management in 2014 at Lanzhou University, China. And he will continue his graduate study in Management Science and Engineering. He is interested in operations research and mathematical modeling.

Qian Gao

Qian Gao received her Bachelor in Business Management in 2014 at Lanzhou University, China. She is interested in operations research and mathematical modeling.

Zhe George Zhang

Zhe George Zhang is a Professor in Management Science at Western Washington University in the USA and a Professor in Operations Research at Simon Fraser University in Canada. He obtained his Ph.D. in Operations Research from the University of Waterloo, Canada. The focus of his current research is on theory and application of queueing and other stochastic models.