This content has been archived. It may no longer be relevant
Braess’s paradox states that adding extra capacity to a network, when the moving entities selfishly choose their route, can in some cases reduce overall performance. This is because the Nash equilibrium of such a system is not necessarily optimal. The paradox has generally been applied to traffic, but more and more agencies are finding that that the paradox can also be applied to social gatherings as well.
Formulated in 1968 by Dietrich Braess, the paradox is not a true paradox, but rather a counter-intuitive finding regarding an everyday situation. The concept was that in an urban area with a lot of traffic, adding a new road to distribute the traffic may seem like a sensible idea, but just the opposite occurs – a new route added in a transportation network increases the travel times of all individual travelers.
Associate Creative Director at bloomfield knoble
