Application to Traffic Control

Abstract

The model of representatives is applied to find the city street intersections whose traffic situations somehow foreshadow the conditions at other intersections, meaning that some intersections can be considered representatives of others. These representative intersections are forecasters of the jams that could be prevented by switching the ‘green wave’ (coordination of traffic lights to allow continuous traffic flow over several intersections) in the appropriate direction before a slow-down can form. The most representative intersections for forecasting are found using the indices of popularity and universality. Moreover, groups of intersections are arranged into ‘parliaments’, making ‘decisions’ by majority rule. This approach is illustrated by an example of forecasting traffic congestions on the City Ring in Hagen, Germany, based on information from intersections all around the town. The predictive capacity of single forecasters and small groups thereof arranged in parliaments is statistically tested. It is shown that just a few appropriately selected intersections are sufficient to make reliable predictions.

Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous; you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013)