In the classical Monge-Kantorovich problem, the transportation cost only depends on the amount of mass sent from sources to destinations and not on the paths followed by each particle forming this mass. Thus, it does not allow for congestion effects, which depend instead on the proportion of mass passing through a same point or following a same path, Usually, the traveling cost (or time) of a path depends on “how crowded” this path is. Starting from a simple network model, we will define equilibria in the presence of congestion. We will then extend this theory to the continuous setting mainly following the recent papers by Brasco, Carlier, and Santambrogio and Carlier, Jimenez, and Santambrogio. After an introduction with almost no mathematical details, we will give a survey of the main features of this theory, Bibliography: 22 titles.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
M. Beckmann, “A continuous model of transportation,” Econometrica, 20, 643-660 (1952).
M. Beckmann, C. McGuire, and C. Winsten, Studies in Economics of Transportation, Yale Univ. Press, New Haven (1956).
J.-B. Baillon and G. Carlier, “From discrete to continuous Wardrop equilibria,” in preparation.
J.-B. Baillon and R. Cominetti, “Markovian traffic equilibrium,” Math. Program., 111, 33-56 (2008).
F. Benmansour, G. Carlier, G. Peyré, and F. Santambrogio, “Numerical approximation of continuous traffic congestion equilibria,” Netw. Heterog. Media, 4, No. 3, 605-623 (2009).
F. Benmansour, G. Carlier, G. Peyré, and F. Santambrogio, “Derivatives with respect to metrics and applications: subgradient marching algorithm,” to appear in Numer. Math.
M. Bernot, V. Caselles, and J.-M. Morel, “Optimal Transportation Networks, Models and Theory, Lect. Notes Math., 1955, Springer, Berlin (2009).
L. Brasco, G. Carlier, and F. Santambrogio, “Congested traffic dynamics, weak flows and very degenerate elliptic equations,” J. Math. Pures Appl., 93, No. 2, 163-182 (2010).
Y. Brenier, “The least action principle and the related concept of generalized flows for incompressible perfect fluids,” J. Amer. Math. Soc., 2, 225-255 (1989).
G. Carlier, C. Jimenez, and F. Santambrogio, “Optimal transportation with traffic congestion and Wardrop equilibria,” SIAM J. Control Optim., 47, 1330-1350 (2008).
B. Dacorogna and J. Moser, “On a partial differential equation involving the Jacobian determinant,” Ann. Inst. H. Poincaré Anal. Non Linéaire, 7, 1-26 (1990).
L. De Pascale and A. Pratelli, “Regularity properties for Monge transport density and for solutions of some shape optimization problem,” Calc. Var. Partial Differential Equations, 14, No. 3, 249-274 (2002).
R. J. DiPerna and P.-L. Lions, “Ordinary differential equations, transport theory and Sobolev spaces,” Invent. Math., 98, 511-547 (1989).
J.-M. Lasry and P.-L. Lions, “Mean-field games,” Japan. J. Math., 2, 229-260 (2007).
J. Moser, “On the volume elements on a manifold,” Trans. Amer. Math. Soc., 120, 286-294 (1965).
T. Roughgarden, Selfish Routing and the Price of Anarchy, MIT Press (2005).
E. Rouy and A. Tourin, “A viscosity solution approach to shape from shading,” SIAM J. Numer. Anal., 29, 867-884 (1992).
F. Santambrogio, “Absolute continuity and summability of transport densities: simpler proofs and new estimates,” Calc. Var. Partial Differential Equations, 36, 343-354 (2009).
F. Santambrogio and V. Vespri, “Continuity in two dimensions for a very degenerate elliptic equation,” Nonlinear Anal., 73, No. 12, 3832-3841 (2010).
C. Villani, Topics in Optimal Transportation, Amer. Math. Soc., Providence, Rhode Island (2004).
C. Villani, Optimal Transport, Old and New, Springer-Verlag, Berlin (2009).
J. G. Wardrop, “Some theoretical aspects of road traffic research,” Proc. Inst. Civ. Eng., 2, 325-378 (1952).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Published in Zapiski Nauchnykh Seminarov POMI, Vol. 390, 2011, pp. 69-91.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Carlier, G., Santambrogio, F. A continuous theory of traffic congestion and Wardrop equilibria. J Math Sci 181, 792–804 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10958-012-0715-5
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10958-012-0715-5