Lecture: A Paradox of Traffic Planning
Professor Dietrich Braess from the Faculty of Mathematics at Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany, will deliver the fifth lecture in the Spring 2006 Operations Research / Management Science Seminar series.
Title: A Paradox of Traffic Planning
Abstract: The equilibrium in a traffic network can differ substantially from the distribution that a system optimizer can create. In some special situations a new road can deteriorate the equilibrium and imply larger travel times for all cars. This is a mathematical statement. Psychological effects make us experience counterintuitive deteriorations of traffic more frequently. In principle, similar effects occur also in the world wide web, but there the deteriorations are bounded and more easily tolerated.
This series is organized by the UMass Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter. Support for this series is provided by the Isenberg School of Management, the Department of Finance and Operations Management, and the John F. Smith Memorial Fund.
Check here for more details about this speaker series.
