The Effect of Information Uncertainty in Transportation Systems

Developments in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), navigation devices and traffic sensors make it possible for traffic participants to not just access real time information regarding the traffic situation but, at the same time, also provide data back to the transportation system. This creates a feedback loop that can have significant consequences on the system performance in terms of total average travel time. In the current paper, we investigate the effect that information inaccuracy caused by different types of sources, can have on the system performance. We first identify three types of uncertainty that can arise in such a system: inaccuracy due to sparsity of data sources, collection inaccuracy and presentation inaccuracy. Subsequently, we use an agent-based microscopic traffic simulation to explore the effects that each type of inaccuracy can have on the transportation system. Experiments reveal certain surprising observations. Firstly, less than twenty percent of the traffic participants need to be data sources for optimal system performance. We also discover that lower precision of information presented to participants is sufficient and, in certain cases, better for system performance. This can have important implications on how information is displayed in navigation devices.     «

Developments in Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), navigation devices and traffic sensors make it possible for traffic participants to not just access real time information regarding the traffic situation but, at the same time, also provide data back to the transportation system. This creates a feedback loop that can have significant consequences on the system performance in terms of total average travel time. In the current paper, we investigate the effect that information inaccuracy cau...     »