Interchange: An Analysis of Auction Mechanics for Intersections

In urban environments a large amount of effort is directed toward alleviating motor vehicle congestion including the design and implementation of complex software and hardware infrastructure. We propose a conceptually simple infrastructure that has promise for increasing performance and responsiveness of intersections to dynamic traffic conditions. The proposed system uses an auction-based mechanism at intersections to alleviate traffic congestion. We discuss the reasoning and goals of implementing auction mechanics into intersections and set empirical expectations as to how such intersections should perform. Second, we compare our simulation of a traditional intersection and an auction-based intersection and propose metrics to track and evaluate such intersections. We demonstrate that auction-based intersections perform well in single and multi-grid configurations. Finally, we present our mesoscopic simulator capable of simulating real-world topographies and show that auction-based intersections show promise in more realistic systems as well.