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

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

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.
Original languageEnglish
JournalMobilities
Volume15
Issue number5
Pages (from-to)725-739
Number of pages15
ISSN1745-0101
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Temporal Dynamics of Ecosystem Services
  2. QALD-10 — The 10th Challenge on Question Answering over Linked Data
  3. An Adaptive Resonance Regulator for an Actuator using Periodic Signals in Camless Engine Systems
  4. Class size, student performance and Tiebout bias
  5. The role of plant biodiversity in modifying the structure and functioning of higher tropic Levels in species-rich forests
  6. Explaining implementation deficits through multi-level governance in the EU's new member states
  7. Non-destructive transmissive inductive thickness sensor for IoT applications
  8. Tree diversity promotes functional dissimilarity and maintains functional richness despite species loss in predator assemblages
  9. Program for Better Riding
  10. Erratum: Formalised and non-formalised methods in resource management-knowledge and social learning in participatory processes
  11. Nonlinear control allocation applied on a QTR
  12. Socio-technical instruments in the field of Integrated Water Resources Management
  13. Nitrogen uptake by grassland communities
  14. Deep drawing of high-strength tailored blanks by using tailored tools
  15. Dynamic Semantic Web Content for Museum Guides
  16. Identification of Parameters and States in PMSMs
  17. Erroneous Examples: A Preliminary Investigation into Learning Benefits
  18. Reference wages and turnover intentions
  19. For whom are internet-based occupational mental health interventions effective? Moderators of internet-based problem-solving training outcome
  20. Towards Computer Simulations of Virtue Ethics
  21. Building trust
  22. Forgetting fire
  23. Thermodynamic description of reactions between Mg and CaO
  24. The role of supervisor support for dealing with customer verbal aggression. Differences between ethnic minority and ethnic majority workers
  25. Study of non-linear systems
  26. Using Large N Longitudinal Comparison to Explain Political Recruitment in Changing Democracies
  27. Scope of the book wastewater reuse and current challenges
  28. Deactivation and transformation products in biodegradability testing of ß-lactams amoxicillin and piperacillin