Optimization versus randomness for car traffic regulation

Abstract

We focus on the differences among the analytical optimization of traffic flow on a road network, modeled by a fluid-dynamic approach, and a dynamic random one. In particular, two real urban networks are analyzed: Re di Roma Square, in Rome, and Via Parmenide crossing, in Salerno. With such two examples, it is possible to show that dynamic random algorithms are not the right choice for the improvement of traffic conditions.

Traffic Optimization at Junctions to Improve Vehicular Flows

“…In the following pictures, we report the time behaviour evolutions of the cost functionals J 1 , J 2 , J 6 , and J 7 , fixing at every junction the values of the right of way parameters obtained by the optimization procedures. The optimizations of local type, like the ones that we are considering here, could not necessarily imply global optimization for big networks, as we can see in Figures 7,8,10,11. This is due to various factors, mainly depending on the network topology and on traffic loads.…”