TITLE:
Optimal Flows On Road Networks In Emergency Cases
AUTHORS:
Nicola Pasquino, Luigi Rarità
KEYWORDS:
conservation laws; traffic problems; redistribution of flows
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Applied Sciences,
Vol.2 No.4B,
January
11,
2013
ABSTRACT: In this paper, we present a technique to redistribute car flows, described by a fluid dynamic model, on a portion of the Caltanissetta city, in Italy, when critical situations, such as car accidents, occur. Using a decentralized approach, a cost functional, that describes the asymptotic average velocity of emergency vehicles, is maximized with respect to distribution coefficients at simple junctions with two incoming roads and two outgoing ones. Then, in order to manage critical situations in high traffic conditions, local optimal coefficients at each node of the network are used. The overall traffic evolution is studied via simulations, that confirm the goodness of the optimization results. It is also proved that optimal coefficients allow a fast transit of emergency vehicles on assigned routes on the network.