This new travel time of minutes represents a increase from the previous time!

What happened? The superfast new road has proven to be too tempting for too many drivers, causing bad congestion and affecting the performance of the whole network. The drivers do not have any incentive to switch to the other routes, because they all have the same travel time. So, everybody gets stuck. In other words, selfish behavior has eroded the efficiency of the network, increasing travel time by 20%. Economists refer to this phenomenon as “the price to pay for anarchy”. However, if the drivers agree to avoid route c completely, the travel time will decrease. This option is the same as adopting a cooperative strategy in which drivers split between the two preexisting routes. Actually, some road networks do have controller systems directing the traffic. In such networks the Braess paradox will not occur. It is only observed when drivers choose their own best routes.