Cars or buses: computer simulation of a social and economic dilemma

Abstract

We report computer simulation experiments to model the dilemma of using cars or mass transportation in large cities. The individual Pavlovian agents may cooperate with each other for the collective interest (public transportation) or may defect, i.e., pursue their selfish interests by driving their cars. Their decisions to cooperate or defect accumulate over time to produce a resulting collective order that determines the success or failure of the transportation system. The results show that it is quite possible to achieve a situation when the enormous majority of people prefer using mass transportation to driving cars.