Study on the Degree of the Network Connectivity of Expressways Operated in the Closed-type Toll Collection System

Abstract

The Korea Expressway Corporation collects tolls in all expressways in its charge under the Toll Road Act establishing user pay principle, cost recovery method, and integrated-profit system as legal bases for collecting tolls. However, the act does not clearly stipulate the methodology how to measure the connectivity in terms of transportation, which is one of requirements for the adaptation of integrated-profit system, so that there have been lots of arguments on collecting tolls on the expressways. Thus, this research effort developed a transportation-connectivity index to estimate the degree of the connectivity of expressways in terms of physical linkage and actual usage. The index was validated using TCS and Hi-Pass data collected from expressways operated under the closed-type toll collection system. Conclusively, the connectivity indexes of the subject expressways in use are over 2.0 in general, which mean all the subject expressways are physically well connected and multiple expressway routes are frequently and simultaneously used.