On Road Network Utility Based on Risk-Aware Link Choice

We have previously shown how it is possible to lower accident risk levels while at the same time increasing traffic flows with the aid of vehicular ad-hoc networks. In this paper, we extend the online traffic accident risk mitigation sys- tem to include link choice. We develop an algorithm that allows vehicles to choose road links that provide the current maximal utility, based on information received over a vehicular network, whilst remaining below acceptable risk levels. Additionally, we investigate how to improve the performance of this algorithm by considering the effect a vehicle’s link choice has on the utility of other vehicles. We introduce a social penalty for reducing other vehicles’ utility and investigate the effects of including this as a factor in vehicles’ link choices. The resulting system sheds new light on the problem of effective link choice by route selection algorithms and highlights the potential that exists in VANET-based traffic management.