Monday, January 22, 2007
Traffic Theory
I had recently attended a talk on Game Theory by Robert J Aumann, Nobel Prize Recipient for Economics 2005.
For the uninitiated, Game Theory revolves around the Dynamics of Decision making in a group, particularly how human beings tend to behave in the face of personal gains as compared to gains for all.
My interest in Game Theory began after watching the movie "A Beautiful Mind" based on the story of John Nash and since then have been hooked to this subject and its practical applications.
The traffic in Bangalore mirrors a very famous game called the "Prisoner's Dilemma". Consider any traffic junction with no signals or a cop, now the personal gain for each person is in clearing the intersection and that's exactly what everyone tries to do resulting in absolute chaos. If vehicles don't clash then some egos definitely will and the result is often a hassled two wheeler blocking traffic and shouting for all he is worth, the end result is that all are stuck in a jam that takes a few hours to untangle.
If the people were however to consider the gain of the group i.e. be patient and possibly wait a few minutes in clearing the intersection in an organized manner there would be no Jam or in other words the gain for the group, while seemingly less than personal gain often yields better results.
Now the interesting part is that this situation occurs every other day in Bangalore (hence it can be classified as a repeating game i.e. one that occurs again and again) and yet always ensues in an ugly jam. Maybe we need to make Game Theory a must read for every Bangalorean and hope that the traffic situation gets better.
For the uninitiated, Game Theory revolves around the Dynamics of Decision making in a group, particularly how human beings tend to behave in the face of personal gains as compared to gains for all.
My interest in Game Theory began after watching the movie "A Beautiful Mind" based on the story of John Nash and since then have been hooked to this subject and its practical applications.
The traffic in Bangalore mirrors a very famous game called the "Prisoner's Dilemma". Consider any traffic junction with no signals or a cop, now the personal gain for each person is in clearing the intersection and that's exactly what everyone tries to do resulting in absolute chaos. If vehicles don't clash then some egos definitely will and the result is often a hassled two wheeler blocking traffic and shouting for all he is worth, the end result is that all are stuck in a jam that takes a few hours to untangle.
If the people were however to consider the gain of the group i.e. be patient and possibly wait a few minutes in clearing the intersection in an organized manner there would be no Jam or in other words the gain for the group, while seemingly less than personal gain often yields better results.
Now the interesting part is that this situation occurs every other day in Bangalore (hence it can be classified as a repeating game i.e. one that occurs again and again) and yet always ensues in an ugly jam. Maybe we need to make Game Theory a must read for every Bangalorean and hope that the traffic situation gets better.
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