Mathematical models describe a real-life phenomenon, using mathematical language. The model will not exactly be like the reality, but can be used to learn from and help us make decisions.
We can all agree, a no. 1 source of frustration is the endless waiting on hold for a call center agent to pick up the phone. Interestingly, over the last 111 years mathematicians have been working on a vast theory to solve this call center inefficiency.
In 2014, in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, the average person spend approximately 40 hours in a traffic jam - that is 5 work days! In this article, I will explain how mathematical models with uncertainty help traffic engineers to make decisions that improve traffic.
Traffic lights are currently an annoying but inevitable part of traffic. With the introduction of self-driving cars however, can we avoid having to wait for a red light ever again?