Departure time choice equilibrium and optimal transport problems

This paper presents a systematic approach for analyzing the departure-time choice equilibrium (DTCE) problem of a single bottleneck with heterogeneous commuters. The approach is based on the fact that the DTCE is equivalently represented as a linear programming problem with a special structure, which can be analytically solved by exploiting the theory of optimal transport combined with a decomposition technique. By applying the proposed approach to several types of models with heterogeneous commuters, it is shown that the dynamic equilibrium distribution of departure times exhibits striking regularities under mild assumptions regarding schedule delay functions, in which commuters sort themselves according to their attributes, such as desired arrival times, schedule delay functions (value of times), and travel distances to a destination.