Braess’ Paradox in Motion
The new St. Mary’s Health Center in Jefferson City is creating a problem for the inhabitants of the surrounding neighborhoods. Residents are afraid that the new employees — more than 1,100 workers — will be using their residential roads as shortcuts to work, therefore increasing the amount of traffic near their homes.
What is interesting, however, is that although these new workers may believe that they are cutting time off of their daily commute by taking these shortcuts, it is actually quite the opposite. According to Braess’ paradox, adding more routes that people can chose from within a traffic network will actually increase the amount of traffic instead of decreasing it. This is because the new Nash equilibrium that is formed after the addition of the new roads is not optimal and would lead to even more traffic congestion. This being said, if all the new employees did stay upon the main roads and highways, they may actually have a shorter time behind the wheel. Although they would be added to the normal traffic flow, overall, their travel time would be shorter if they did not seep into other channels — which would alleviate the problems of the residents in the surrounding neighborhoods.
Source: http://www.connectmidmissouri.com/news/story.aspx?id=1096326#.VBuks1a4mlI