The Loss of Efficiency Caused by Agents’ Uncoordinated Routing in Transport Networks

Large-scale daily commuting data were combined with detailed geographical information system (GIS) data to analyze the loss of transport efficiency caused by drivers’ uncoordinated routing in urban road networks. We used Price of Anarchy (POA) to quantify the loss of transport efficiency and found that both volume and distribution of human mobility demand determine the POA. In order to reduce POA, a small number of highways require considerable decreases in traffic, and their neighboring arterial roads need to attract more traffic. The magnitude of the adjustment in traffic flow can be estimated using the fundamental measure traffic flow only, which is widely available and easy to collect. Surprisingly, the most congested roads or the roads with largest traffic flow were not those requiring the most reduction of traffic. This study can offer guidance for the optimal control of urban traffic and facilitate improvements in the efficiency of transport networks.