Is it time to go for no-car zone policies? Braess Paradox Detection

Abstract

No-car zone is becoming a trend in many parts of the world, mainly driven by environmental motives. Recent data has shown that both vehicle kilometers traveled and car ownership are on the decline, especially in developed countries. This has been coupled with the rise of new urban mobility concepts such as smart mobility, car sharing, and green modes. Can we push for these policies without compromising traffic circulation? The Braess Paradox (BP) suggests that road closure can, in fact, improve traffic congestion; dubbed as the Braess Paradox Detection Problem (BPDP). This study aims to leverage the BP to boost the idea of the no-car zone. To this end, we formulate the BPDP as a bilevel prob..