IT'S FRIDAY evening, and you're about to head out of the city.
But the traffic news tells you that there's a jam on your normal
route. Is it worth taking an alternative? And how far out of
your way do you need to go to avoid the snarl-up? If you lived
in Duisburg in Germany, you need never wrestle with this kind of
dilemma. Instead, you could plan your journey using an up-to-
the-minute map of traffic flow for the entire city. These maps
are constructed from data taken by vehicle detectors dispersed
throughout the city's streets. But there is no way that the
entire city could be staked out this way. Data recorded at a few
key points provide the input to a real-time on-line computer
simulation of the traffic flow, pegging the model to reality.
This system, developed by Michael Schreckenberg and his
colleagues at the University of Duisburg, ... To continue
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