An introduction to bilevel programming and an application to London congestion road pricing Seminar

Event details

In this seminar, I shall introduce bilevel programming. This is a hierarchical optimisation problem, which is an optimisation problem with a second optimisation problem embedded into the constraints. Bilevel programs are typically NP-hard, and therefore can be difficult to solve well. I shall discuss the formulation of the problem and introduce various solution approaches and methods to solve the problem, including the algorithmic approach currently in research. I will then explore a real-life application of the problem. The London congestion zone charge is a fixed toll cordon scheme in London, first implemented in 2003, to try to alleviate the problem of congestion on London roads. Although initially successful when first implemented, congestion has increased to pre-charge prices, and a new tolling scheme may need to be considered. We shall look at how we can formulate this problem as a bilevel program, and look at updated tolling schemes that can consider charging prices based on the distance travelled, or time spent in the road network.