Non-Aggressive Adaptive Routing in Traffic

Abstract

Routing a person through a traffic road network presents a tension between selecting a fixed route that is easy to navigate and selecting an aggressively adaptive route that minimizes travel time. In this paper, we propose a novel routing framework that strikes a balance between adaptability and simplicity. Specifically, we propose to create non-aggressive adaptive routes that seek the best of both these extremes in the navigation world. These selected routes still adapt to changing traffic conditions, but we limit the number of adjustments made en route. This framework improves the driver experience by providing a continuum of options between saving travel time and reducing navigation stress. We design strategies to model single and multiple route adjustments, and investigate numerous techniques to solve these models for better route selection. To alleviate the intractability of handling real-life traffic data, we devise efficient algorithms with easily computable lower and upper bounds. We finally perform computational experiments on our algorithms to demonstrate the benefits of limited adaptability in terms of reducing the travel time.