Braess’ paradox illustrates situations when adding a new link to a transport network might lead to an equilibriumstate in which travel times of users will increase. Braess’ paradox has been studied mainly in the context of theclassical problem introduced by Braess and his colleagues, assuming a certain type of symmetry in networks.Specifically, two pairs of links in those networks are assumed to have the same volume-delay functions. Suchsymmetry is not common in real-life networks because the parameters of volume-delay functions are associated withroads physical and functional characteristics, which typically differ from one link to another. This research providesan extension of previous studies on Braess’ paradox by considering arbitrary volume-delay functions, i.e. symmetryproperties are not assumed for any of the network’s links and the occurrence of Braess’ paradox is studied for ageneral configuration.
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