Many roads lead to the destination. But if you open up a new, more efficient route, it is certain that traffic will concentrate exactly there and the relief will initially fail to materialise. "The Braess Paradox is always a concern," explained Prof. S. Travis Waller at his university-wide inaugural lecture on 16 June, "as our traffic systems are extraordinarily complex because they are determined by the self-interest of the participants: Because of our individual goals, we sometimes run diagonally or at a surprising point across the road. In automated simulations, spontaneous decisions and preferences are difficult to represent."

Impressions from the inaugural lecture on 16 June 2022

Prof. Dr. S. Travis Waller

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Congratulating S. Travis Waller (2nd from right) on the successful inaugural lecture: the Rector of TU Dresden, Prof. Ursula M. Staudinger (right), Prof. Günther Prokop (left) and Prof. Regine Gerike (2nd from left), Dean and Vice Dean of the "Friedrich List" Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences.

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Questions from the audience to S. Travis Waller after the lecture - here from TUD Rector Prof. Ursula M. Staudinger.

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To ensure that the traffic of the future can nevertheless be designed in a fair and sustainable way, Prof. Waller and his research team are taking up this challenge at the Chair of Transport Modelling and Simulation at the "Friedrich List" Faculty of Transport and Traffic Sciences at TU Dresden. Their goal: to include conditions such as climate, human decision-making, health risks or economic backgrounds of individuals in mathematical formulas. "The biggest disruption in the system is formed by the traffic participants themselves. To effectively maintain traffic flow, human behaviour would have to be more predictable," Waller explains. Cost would be one aspect that could regulate equal distribution.

For example, tolls could be calculated individually as an "agent-based system" to prevent social injustice. Another approach Prof. Waller is pursuing in connection with automated and networked mobility is the lightning-fast buying and selling of small sections of road on which one is currently travelling - via blockchain. "Transport is being transformed by technology and social awareness. The exciting challenge of our approach is to shape the transition into the future through mathematics and by mixing different technologies. However, what is crucial is what ethical values we agree on now to pursue then."

The renowned US-Australian researcher will primarily help shape the Emerging Field of Automated and Networked Mobility at TUD, which focuses on the development of efficient, safe, intelligent and sustainable transport systems (see article in the online magazine "Verkehrslage").