Networks in the City of Ithaca
Networks in the City of Ithaca
As we have seen throughout the semester, networks can be applied to many facets of our daily lives, one of them being the means by which we get from place A to place B. Of course, in today’s world, it is definitely more beneficial for one to take a shorter, less time-consuming route from one place to another. This article discusses the closing of the Clinton Street Bridge. It advises drivers to take routes that avoid Downtown Ithaca whenever possible and to allot more time for travel to reach their destinations. In our busy lives, it is very important to plan how we get to places efficiently so that we can save time wherever possible.
In my life, I usually have to withdraw money from the Bank of America branch on Meadow St. Normally, on the way back from the bank, I would take the Clinton Street Bridge to Aurora St, as my apartment is on Aurora. However, with the construction, I now have to decide between taking Cayuga Street to Green Street to Aurora Street or Cayuga Street to Buffalo Street to Aurora Street. Point A in this case is Cayuga Street and Point B is Aurora Street. Route I would be a direct route between these to points via the Clinton Street Bridge. However, with the recent construction, I now have to take either Route II (Cayuga to Green (Point C) to Aurora) or Route III (Cayuga to Buffalo (Point D) to Aurora). It is more time consuming to travel from Green to Aurora, as Green is a main street, than it is traveling from Buffalo to Aurora, since Buffalo is a residential street. At the same time, it takes less time to get to Green from Cayuga than it does to Buffalo from Cayuga since Green is closer than Cayuga. This sets up a game where we have to figure out the Nash equilibrium of how many drivers should take each route given the total number of drivers. A possible system of equations could be set up. X and Y would represent the number of drivers on route II and route III respectively. The two equations would be:
X+Y=Total Number of Drivers
Time spent on Route II (Could be X dependent) = Time spent on Route III (Could be Y Dependent)
Solving for X and Y would give you the Nash equilibrium number of drivers on each route so that it takes the same amount of time on Route II as it does on Route III. If there are more drivers on one route than the Nash equilibrium value, one would know that he or she would have to take the other route since it would be less time consuming. Unfortunately, the current technology we have still doesn’t update us on the number of drivers on each road at a given time. Therefore, we normally have to base our decision on chance.
City of Ithaca closing Clinton Street bridge this Monday for reconstruction project
http://today.14850.com/stories/0429-ithaca-clinton-bridge
Submitted by pavbhaji91