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Braess's Paradox Implies Reduced Demand

Author

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  • David Levinson

    (TransportLab, School of Civil Engineering, University of Sydney)

Abstract

Induced demand is usually interpreted as additional capacity reducing generalized cost and producing more travel. When a network exhibits Braess's paradox, an added link raises user-equilibrium cost, and we would thus expect demand to fall. I show this in Braess's original four-node numerical network with linear link costs and inverse demand. In the default case, the added link raises elastic equilibrium cost from 70.14 to 80.00 and reduces demand from 3.66 to 3.33. The reported 143-point sweep maps the Braess region in inverse-demand space; no sign-inconsistent cells appear. The accompanying browser implementation reproduces the reported comparison and sweep.

Suggested Citation

  • David Levinson, 2026. "Braess's Paradox Implies Reduced Demand," Working Papers paper-2026-17, University of Minnesota: Nexus Research Group.
    • Handle: RePEc:nex:wpaper:paper-2026-17
    DOI: 10.32866/001c.162821
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    File URL: https://doi.org/10.32866/001c.162821
    File Function: Published version landing page, 2026
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    File URL: https://github.com/dlevinson/braess-js
    File Function: Data and code package, 2026
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    File URL: https://transportlab.sydney.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/braess/documentation.html
    File Function: Browser application documentation, 2026
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    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.32866/001c.162821?utm_source=ideas
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    JEL classification:

    • R40 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Transportation Economics - - - General

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