Selfish routing games with priority lanes

Abstract: We study selfish routing games where users can choose between regular and priority service for each network edge on their chosen path. Priority users pay an additional fee, but in turn they may travel the edge prior to non-priority users, hence experiencing potentially less congestion. For this model, we establish existence of equilibria for linear latency functions and prove uniqueness of edge latencies, despite potentially different strategic choices in equilibrium. Our main contribution demonstrates that marginal cost pricing achieves system optimality: When priority fees equal marginal externality costs, the equilibrium flow coincides with the socially optimal flow, hence the price of anarchy equals $1$. This voluntary priority mechanism therefore provides an incentive-compatible alternative to mandatory congestion pricing, whilst achieving the same result. We also discuss the limitations of a uniform pricing scheme for the priority option.