CEE Seminar: Downtown Traffic Congestion as Queuing Delays on an Isotropic Network of Signalized Intersections

Abstract: This seminar has both broad and narrow aims. The broader aim is to explore modeling downtown traffic as queuing delays on an isotropic network of signalized intersections. The narrower aim is, via simulation, to argue that modeling an isotropic network of signalized intersections as a Jackson network (probabilistic independence of intersections) substantially underestimates the mean and variance of trip times, especially under saturated conditions. 

Bio: Richard Arnott received his undergraduate training in civil engineering at MIT and his graduate training in economics at Yale University. Prior to joining UCR, he was on the faculty at Queen’s University, Canada, and Boston College. While he is best known for his work in urban economic theory and transportation economic theory, he has also done work in the economics of information and uncertainty in public economics. He has served as editor of the Journal of Economic Geography and Regional Science and Urban Economics and is currently on the Distinguished Editorial Board of Transportation Research Part B: Methodological.