Traffic Equilibrium

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=596&sid=1677629

This article is about how a company that manages a toll road is struggling. Imagine a diamond graph, with the top half being a regular highway path (its delay varies linearly-ish with the number of cars), and the bottom half being the tollway (delay is relatively constant) . Now that the traffic through the top path has decreased, it has become a more attractive option than the bottom path. Even if the the tollway is faster, now with the economy, the price of the tollway may not be enough to justify the minimal decrease in delay due to the decreased overall traffic. Essentially, these companies that are sponsoring tollways are getting hit with a one-two punch of tightening wallets and better highway traffic.