Eur. Phys. J. B 73, 303-308 (2010)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2009-00438-2

Traffic optimization in transport networks based on local routing

¹ Laboratorio sui Sistemi Complessi, Scuola Superiore di Catania, Via San Nullo 5/i, 95123 Catania, Italy
² Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica, Elettronica e dei Sistemi, Università degli Studi di Catania, Viale A. Doria 6, 95125 Catania, Italy
³ Departamento de Matemática Aplicada, ESCET, UniversidadRey Juan Carlos, 28933 Móstoles Madrid, Spain
⁴ Instituto de Biocomputación y Física Sistemas Complejos (BIFI), Universidad de Zaragoza, 50006 Zaragoza, Spain
⁵ Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Catania and INFN, Sezione di Catania, Via S. Sofia, 64, 95123 Catania, Italy

Corresponding author: gardenes@gmail.com

Received: 13 February 2009
Revised: 14 September 2009
Published online: 24 December 2009

Abstract

Congestion in transport networks is a topic of theoretical interest and practical importance. In this paper we study the flow of vehicles in urban street networks. In particular, we use a cellular automata model on a complex network to simulate the motion of vehicles along streets, coupled with a congestion-aware routing at street crossings. Such routing makes use of the knowledge of agents about traffic in nearby roads and allows the vehicles to dynamically update the routes towards their destinations. By implementing the model in real urban street patterns of various cities, we show that it is possible to achieve a global traffic optimization based on local agent decisions.