Navigation Systems May Deteriorate Stability in Traffic Networks

Advanced traffic navigation systems, which provide routing recommendations to drivers based on real-time congestion information, are nowadays widely adopted by roadway transportation users. Yet, the emerging effects on the traffic dynamics originating from the widespread adoption of these technologi...

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Main Authors: Gianluca Bianchin, Fabio Pasqualetti
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2024-01-01
Series:IEEE Open Journal of Control Systems
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10520878/
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author Gianluca Bianchin
Fabio Pasqualetti
author_facet Gianluca Bianchin
Fabio Pasqualetti
author_sort Gianluca Bianchin
collection DOAJ
description Advanced traffic navigation systems, which provide routing recommendations to drivers based on real-time congestion information, are nowadays widely adopted by roadway transportation users. Yet, the emerging effects on the traffic dynamics originating from the widespread adoption of these technologies have remained largely unexplored until now. In this paper, we propose a dynamic model where drivers imitate the path preferences of previous drivers, and we study the properties of its equilibrium points. Our model is a dynamic generalization of the classical <italic>traffic assignment framework</italic>, and extends it by accounting for dynamics both in the path decision process and in the network&#x0027;s traffic flows. We show that, when travelers learn shortest paths by imitating other travelers, the overall traffic system benefits from this mechanism and transfers the maximum admissible amount of traffic demand. On the other hand, we demonstrate that, when the travel delay functions are not sufficiently steep or the rates at which drivers imitate previous travelers are not adequately chosen, the trajectories of the traffic system may fail to converge to an equilibrium point, thus compromising asymptotic stability. Illustrative numerical simulations combined with empirical data from highway sensors illustrate our findings.
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spelling doaj-art-6624b85b7fdc444d9136b15d093f18af2025-08-20T02:44:28ZengIEEEIEEE Open Journal of Control Systems2694-085X2024-01-01323925210.1109/OJCSYS.2024.339727010520878Navigation Systems May Deteriorate Stability in Traffic NetworksGianluca Bianchin0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3234-5535Fabio Pasqualetti1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8457-8656ICTEAM Institute and the Department of Mathematical Engineering, Universit&#x00E9; catholique de Louvain, Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve, BelgiumDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, The University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA, USAAdvanced traffic navigation systems, which provide routing recommendations to drivers based on real-time congestion information, are nowadays widely adopted by roadway transportation users. Yet, the emerging effects on the traffic dynamics originating from the widespread adoption of these technologies have remained largely unexplored until now. In this paper, we propose a dynamic model where drivers imitate the path preferences of previous drivers, and we study the properties of its equilibrium points. Our model is a dynamic generalization of the classical <italic>traffic assignment framework</italic>, and extends it by accounting for dynamics both in the path decision process and in the network&#x0027;s traffic flows. We show that, when travelers learn shortest paths by imitating other travelers, the overall traffic system benefits from this mechanism and transfers the maximum admissible amount of traffic demand. On the other hand, we demonstrate that, when the travel delay functions are not sufficiently steep or the rates at which drivers imitate previous travelers are not adequately chosen, the trajectories of the traffic system may fail to converge to an equilibrium point, thus compromising asymptotic stability. Illustrative numerical simulations combined with empirical data from highway sensors illustrate our findings.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10520878/Dynamical flow networksnetwork controltraffic networks
spellingShingle Gianluca Bianchin
Fabio Pasqualetti
Navigation Systems May Deteriorate Stability in Traffic Networks
IEEE Open Journal of Control Systems
Dynamical flow networks
network control
traffic networks
title Navigation Systems May Deteriorate Stability in Traffic Networks
title_full Navigation Systems May Deteriorate Stability in Traffic Networks
title_fullStr Navigation Systems May Deteriorate Stability in Traffic Networks
title_full_unstemmed Navigation Systems May Deteriorate Stability in Traffic Networks
title_short Navigation Systems May Deteriorate Stability in Traffic Networks
title_sort navigation systems may deteriorate stability in traffic networks
topic Dynamical flow networks
network control
traffic networks
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10520878/
work_keys_str_mv AT gianlucabianchin navigationsystemsmaydeterioratestabilityintrafficnetworks
AT fabiopasqualetti navigationsystemsmaydeterioratestabilityintrafficnetworks