Braess’s Paradox
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2016/10/20/bad-traffic-blame-braess-paradox/#203f9bcb14b5
This article discusses Braess’s Paradox and real world examples of when newly built roadways, designed to reduce traffic, actually worsened the traffic. The paradox explains that building new roads can increase traffic while eliminating existing roads can improve commutes by limiting congestion. The reason why this happens is because upon the opening of a new roadway, most drivers will act selfishly and take this new route. However, when everyone uses the new road, traffic becomes worse overall as this path was only meant to reduce traffic. This problem relates to Tragedy of the Commons, in which everyone is at a disadvantage because they act selfishly instead of cooperating.
Real world examples of Braess’s Paradox include Seoul, New York City, and Germany – all places where traffic improved because of roadway closures. In Stuttgart, Germany the roadway closure came after an initial project where many new highways were built. Traffic did not improve after this project and only improved after part of the new network had to be shut down for repairs.
This article relates to our course because it exemplifies how the theories of Networks apply to the real world. Upon learning Braess’s Paradox, I did not understand that it would actually occur in real situations. It never made sense to me how building a new traffic path, which one intuitively thinks will reduce congestion and make commutes easier, would simply change the concentration of commuters from one path to another. Therefore, this article, which points to situations where Braess’s Paradox occurs, demonstrates the importance of theories in this course.