Title: Cars or buses: computer simulation of a social and economic dilemma

Authors: Miklos N. Szilagyi

Addresses: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA

Abstract: We report computer simulation experiments to model the dilemma of using cars or mass transportation in large cities. The individual Pavlovian agents may cooperate with each other for the collective interest (public transportation) or may defect, i.e., pursue their selfish interests by driving their cars. Their decisions to cooperate or defect accumulate over time to produce a resulting collective order that determines the success or failure of the transportation system. The results show that it is quite possible to achieve a situation when the enormous majority of people prefer using mass transportation to driving cars.

Keywords: agent-based simulation; Chicken Dilemma; cooperation; Prisoners Dilemma; car use; mass transportation; public transport; collective interest; selfish interests; transport selection; choice of transport.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIEM.2009.022932

International Journal of Internet and Enterprise Management, 2009 Vol.6 No.1, pp.23 - 30

Published online: 04 Feb 2009 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article