A Multi-Agent Model for Social Behavior in Vehicular Traffic

Slow traffic is a major environmental and economic problem, especially in crowded or developing cities. Often, slow traffic is blamed on “selfish” drivers that drive aggressively at the expense of others on the road. This research uses multiagent simulations to model traffic in a long road with traffic signals in order to observe the effects of such asocial behavior on road throughput and lane change count. Traffic signals along the road were programmed to follow a Green Wave scheme. Results show that while overall road throughput may not be affected by the introduction of asocial cars, there is an increased number of lane change events, which could in turn jeopardize road safety.