Self sustaining traffic management system and its compartmental modeling

Abstract

Traffic management systems rely on extensive communication and centralized information processing. They are capital intensive, prone to failures and require management of the communication network. In the present work, we propose a self sustaining traffic management system which is inherently distributed in nature. The approach incorporates intelligent vehicles and roadside beacons, with limited communication for congestion control. A compartmental model is used to study the behaviour of the system. It is shown that the approach is effective in mitigating the congestion on the road in a network large or small, if alternate paths to divert the traffic are available. The method can be easily used with an existing signalling arrangement and if required with a centralized congestion control system.