[e63f67dd-065b]

I would've preferred an auction; institute a cap of x entrances/day, and run an auction the day before to efficiently allocate the limited slots to those who are most willing to pay for it. Last-minute entrants who will need to get in for whatever reason and missed the auction will pay large premium above the market clearing price.

Given that vehicle traffic is non-uniform throughout the day, maybe it would make sense to have separate prices per hour, but there reaches a point where the marginal increase in complexity does not drive marginal improvements in allocation.

[wenc]

What you're suggesting has a known solution: dynamic (i.e. surge) pricing.

There are many variations: you can do dynamic spot pricing (which is determined in real time, like Uber/Lyft surges), or reserved pricing (which is dynamic but can be locked in ahead of time, like the wholesale day-ahead electricity market which is priced by the hour or hotels/airplane tickets). Or some combination of the above.

You can do this through a phone app.

[bitshiftfaced]

An auction would optimize pricing, but at the cost of extra friction on drivers. Who wants to have to think about bidding on a toll everyday?

Another way to do it would be to look at historical data and predict demand in advance. You could then do custom prices by day, but scheduled a month in advance or more. You could also split the day into two or three periods with different pricing.