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arXiv · 2511.01421

Controlling Traffic without Tolls: A Non-Monetary Framework for Autonomous Intersections

Arda Kosay·Yusuf Saltan·Jyun-Jhe Wang·Chung-Wei Lin·Muhammed O. Sayin
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Abstract

The increasing complexity of urban transportation systems, driven by connected and automated vehicles, calls for new modeling paradigms and scalable control strategies. We propose a non-monetary control framework that leverages autonomous intersection management to influence routing decisions without tolls. The approach uses timestamp-based scheduling adjustments at roadside units (RSUs) to introduce path-dependent delays or advancements, steering traffic toward socially efficient flows. We develop a hierarchical architecture that separates real-time intersection control from network-level coordination. The resulting model admits a congestion-game formulation with path-dependent node costs. We establish the existence and essential uniqueness of equilibrium flows, eliminating ambiguities due to multiple equilibria and enabling a scalable and tractable bilevel optimization formulation for system-level incentive design. Experiments on the Sioux Falls network show that the proposed approach reduces the efficiency gap between user equilibrium and system-optimal flows by up to 71% under realistic constraints. These results demonstrate the potential of non-monetary, infrastructure-light control for next-generation intelligent transportation and urban mobility systems.

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Arda Kosay, Yusuf Saltan, Jyun-Jhe Wang, Chung-Wei Lin, Muhammed O. Sayin. 2025-11-03. Controlling Traffic without Tolls: A Non-Monetary Framework for Autonomous Intersections. https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.01421

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