Degrading network capacity may improve performance: private versus public monitoring in the Braess Paradox

The Braess Paradox (BP) is a counterintuitive finding that degrading a network that is susceptible to congestion may decrease the equilibrium travel cost for each of its users. We illustrate this paradox with two networks: a basic network with four alternative routes from a single origin to a single destination, and an augmented network with six alternative routes. We construct the equilibrium solutions to these two networks, which jointly give...