TY - JOUR

T1 - Traffic Life: Temporal Dynamics and Regulatory Dimensions in Agent-Based Transport Simulations

AU - Vehlken, Sebastian

PY - 2020

Y1 - 2020

N2 - The article discusses the interplay of normative and temporal dynamics in agent-based traffic simulations (ABM). From a media-historical perspective, it focuses on the TRANSIMS simulation system as a seminal example for an ABM ‘mindset’ in transportation and infrastructure simulation. ABM explicitly links traffic simulation with the broader focus of mobility studies by connecting the mere physicality of transport dynamics with a sociality of agents claiming to be descriptive of real-life structures. First, TRANSIMS elevates the examination of traffic dynamics to a meta-level of urban infrastructure design where individual timing and purposeful agent behaviors are placed at the heart of traffic systems. Second, TRANSIMS provides a ‘virtual testbed’ by generating traffic scenarios which eventually lead to situations that meet certain normative limits or regulatory guidelines. And third, ABM often display a strong tendency towards a methodological individualism which requires a ‘theory guidance’ by disciplines like sociology, media theory, or political science to challenge the oftentimes oversimplifying parameters of their ‘artificial sociality’. Consequently, with regard to the scope of mobility studies, ABM can be understood as a medium which negotiates conceptual and interdisciplinary differences and thereby transcends the solely pragmatist notion of ‘virtual testbeds’ as unmitigated optimization tools.

AB - The article discusses the interplay of normative and temporal dynamics in agent-based traffic simulations (ABM). From a media-historical perspective, it focuses on the TRANSIMS simulation system as a seminal example for an ABM ‘mindset’ in transportation and infrastructure simulation. ABM explicitly links traffic simulation with the broader focus of mobility studies by connecting the mere physicality of transport dynamics with a sociality of agents claiming to be descriptive of real-life structures. First, TRANSIMS elevates the examination of traffic dynamics to a meta-level of urban infrastructure design where individual timing and purposeful agent behaviors are placed at the heart of traffic systems. Second, TRANSIMS provides a ‘virtual testbed’ by generating traffic scenarios which eventually lead to situations that meet certain normative limits or regulatory guidelines. And third, ABM often display a strong tendency towards a methodological individualism which requires a ‘theory guidance’ by disciplines like sociology, media theory, or political science to challenge the oftentimes oversimplifying parameters of their ‘artificial sociality’. Consequently, with regard to the scope of mobility studies, ABM can be understood as a medium which negotiates conceptual and interdisciplinary differences and thereby transcends the solely pragmatist notion of ‘virtual testbeds’ as unmitigated optimization tools.

KW - Media and communication studies

KW - Agent-based computer simulation

KW - ABM

KW - cellular automata

KW - TRANSIMS

KW - traffic simulation

KW - theory guidance

KW - methological individualism

KW - smartness

KW - Digital media

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85091019201&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/17450101.2020.1806509

DO - 10.1080/17450101.2020.1806509

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 15

SP - 725

EP - 739

JO - Mobilities

JF - Mobilities

SN - 1745-0101

IS - 5

ER -