Copyright © 2011 Ciro D'Apice et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

We deal with the optimization of traffic flows distribution at road junctions with an incoming road and two outgoing ones, in order to manage special events which determine congestion phenomena. Using a fluid-dynamic model for the description of the car densities evolution, the attention is focused on a decentralized approach. Two cost functionals, measuring the kinetic energy and the average travelling times, weighted with the number of cars moving on roads, are considered. The first one is maximized with respect to the distribution coefficient, and the second is minimized with respect to the same control parameter. The obtained results have been tested by simulations of urban networks. Decongestion effects are also confirmed estimating the time a car needs to cross a fixed route on the network.