This paper deals with the problems of optimal capacity and pricing decisions in private road networks. These problems are
described as a class of design and pricing Stackelberg games and formulated as nonconvex, bilevel nonlinear programs. Such
games capture interactions among the decisions of system designer/operator, government regulations and reactions of multi-class
users on optimal toll-capacity combinations. The present class of games applies to a realistic urban highway with untolled
alternative arterial links. In contrast with the mostly used continuous representations, the highway capacity is more intuitively
expressed as a discrete variable, which further complicates the solution procedure. Hence, an evolutionary computing approach
is employed to provide a stochastic global search of the optimal toll and capacity choices. The results offer valuable insights
into how investment and pricing strategies can be deployed in regulated private road networks.
Keywords Road Pricing - Equilibrium Network Design - Regulated Private Highways - Stackelberg Games - Genetic Algorithms