Implementation of Best First Search Algorithm in Determining Best Route Based on Traffic Jam Level in Medan City

Traffic congestion is a problem for almost everyone in big cities. Based on the 2017 traffic condition report released by Inrix, a transportation analysis company, on average, Indonesians were wasting time about 51 hours a year stuck in traffic congestion. Therefore, one of the solutions to overcome this traffic jam problem is by creating an application or system which can find routes with the lowest possible level of a traffic jam from the origin location to the destination. Best First Search algorithm works by selecting the best nodes (with the most economical cost) among other generated nodes from the initial node to the goal node. The route generated by the system will be shown on the map, along with the distance, travel time, algorithm running time, and traffic flow condition of the route. The implementation and testing on the system showed that the distance traveled by walking was less than or equal to the distance traveled by driving. On the other hand, using the same travel mode, the route from origin to destination had different distances and travel time than the vice-versa because of the Best First Search algorithm itself. Nevertheless, in some cases, the distance from the origin to the destination may be the same as from destination to origin because both of them are closed together. The average distance, travel time, and algorithm running time generated from the testing were 2.8 km, 20.375 minutes, and 0.182 seconds. However, the routes generated by the system weren't always optimal because the Best First Search algorithm wasn't taking into account the total travel time taken.