Real World Commute POAs

http://arstechnica.com/old/content/2008/09/selfish-driving-causes-everyone-to-pay-the-price-of-anarchy.ars

This article talks about a study done on three real world commutes -- one in Boston, one in New York, and one in London. The researchers calculated the POAs for these commutes and found that they were all in the range of 1.22 -1.3. Because of Braess' Paradox, they were actually able to find roads to close that would make the commutes faster in all of these areas. I think it is very interesting to see the actual numbers for these congestion situations. Also, it's interesting because it seems that new roads are always being built to reduce congestion but it looks like the answer to the traffic problem may lie in getting rid of some of the currently existing roads. If more research is done into Braess' Paradox, it may change how we view urban planning in the future.

In a statement issued by Mayor Villaraigosa, the traffic of his city could be reduced if everyone followed the steps outlined here:
http://laist.com/2008/01/31/10_traffic_relief.php

Most notable is the "Dont Block the Box" which tells people to ignore their greedy instinct to pull forward every chance they get. As we learned in class, this strategy will lead to a equilibrium far from the social optimum; each resident's drive time will suffer during a gridlock.