On a Paradox of Traffic Planning

Dietrich Braess (), Anna Nagurney () and Tina Wakolbinger ()
Additional contact information
Dietrich Braess: Faculty of Mathematics, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany
Anna Nagurney: Department of Finance and Operations Management, Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003
Tina Wakolbinger: Department of Finance and Operations Management, Isenberg School of Management, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003

Transportation Science, 2005, vol. 39, issue 4, 446-450

Abstract: For each point of a road network, let there be given the number of cars starting from it, and the destination of the cars. Under these conditions one wishes to estimate the distribution of traffic flow. Whether one street is preferable to another depends not only on the quality of the road, but also on the density of the flow. If every driver takes the path that looks most favorable to him, the resultant running times need not be minimal. Furthermore, it is indicated by an example that an extension of the road network may cause a redistribution of the traffic that results in longer individual running times.

Keywords: traffic network planning; paradox; equilibrium; critical flows; optimal flows; existence theorem (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2005
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (51)

Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/trsc.1050.0127 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ortrsc:v:39:y:2005:i:4:p:446-450

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Transportation Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().