America on the Move -- Transportation Episode on America Revealed Tonight

Having enjoyed the first episode of America Revealed last week, which was on food, I am looking forward to tonight's segment, "America on the Move," which will focus on transportation systems.


More information about tonight's show, with video clips, can be found here.

Last week, I was interviewed on this production for the PBS affiliate WGBY 57 TV show, Connecting Point.

You can view my interview in NYC with Yul Kwon, the host of America Revealed. In that interview I spoke on the Braess paradox and gridlock.

Nice to see network systems getting so much attention and generating so much interest!

The Ides of March, Transportation and Logistics, and the Braess Paradox

March 15 is the Ides of March and one year ago I was filmed on Broadway in New York City about traffic congestion, gridlock, and the Braess paradox, as part of the PBS series America Revealed.

Today, I am sitting in my office at the School of Business, Economics and Law at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, where I am for 2 weeks as part of their innovative Visiting Professors Program. Gothenburg has a fabulous transportation system with blue and pale yellow trams snaking throughout, along with busses, as well as numerous bicyclists and pedestrians, along with a major port. Hence, transportation and logistics in both research and practice are very valued here.

I am enjoying my interactions with outstanding faculty, students, and postdocs in Sweden very much. It certainly helps that one of the groups that is hosting me has received a major grant from the Swedish government to research Sustainable Transportation. I am also learning about maritime transportation, a topic that I don't get much opportunity to experience back in Amherst, Massachusetts. With the deepening of the Panama Canal, maritime transportation will be a timely topic, back in the US as well. The Swedes have been leaders in intermodal transportation for many years as well as in maritime transportation.

Coincidentally, yesterday, I received a wonderful message from one of the producers at LionTV in London, who was involved in the special America Revealed production, that I appear in, and the message said:

Hi Anna,

Hope you have been keeping well. Just to let you know the website went live a couple of weeks ago, but we didn't announce it as there were still a few tweaks to do, but it's all looking pretty ship shape now, so I thought I'd let you know about it!

Many thanks for all your hard work.

Analytics magazine has a nice writeup on the videoclip that I was filmed for last year on Broadway as does one of the UMass publications In the Loop . In the clip I even note Caesar, which is appropriate on this day, the Ides of March.

For those of you who are interested in learning more about the Braess paradox (how the addition of a road may make everyone worse off in terms of travel time), you may view the lecture that I gave here yesterday. It was on supply chains but I emphasized the importance of capturing decision-making behavior, whether centralized or decentralized, and did highlight the Braess paradox as well as what happens when demand varies over time.

The Worst Traffic Jam Ever -- 10 Days and 60 Miles!

I am getting ready to teach two courses this Fall, including my Transportation & Logistics course, to which I always bring material and news items from the real-world.

Just in time for my first class, is the news, as both The Guardian and The New York Times report, of what is being reported as the worst traffic jam ever, which occurred on a highway west of Beijing, which is part of the Beijing-Tibet highway, and lasted 10 days and 60 miles! The drivers behaved quite well during this logjam and you can view some of the photos of the gridlock here.

One of the reasons for this surreal traffic jam was that construction had started on this major thoroughfare, thus reducing its capacity. Plus, this is a major highway for the transportation not only of passenger vehicles but also of trucks carrying freight and especially coal.

Room for Debate in The New York Times has interesting takes on this mega traffic jam, with one debater stating that such a monumental traffic jam would never happen in the US. Interestingly, as well, many of the truck drivers in order to avoid tolls (and being weighed) would rather choose a longer route, as happened in this case, in China. Tolls in which there is the money vs. time issue is another topic that I will be teaching in my course.

In our Fragile Networks book we discuss how the transportation network design and the reduction of capacity can affect traffic flows, both major issues in the worst traffic jam ever. Also, we quantify the effects of enhancements of network capacity, such as the increase in road capacity. Clearly, to have effective transportation and logistics systems, one must construct the appropriate critical infrastructure, in the form of roads, bridges, and even rails, sea and air routes, to support the flows!

The subject of Transportation & Logistics is always fascinating!