{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,12]],"date-time":"2025-10-12T04:27:13Z","timestamp":1760243233677,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":68,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"5","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2014,4,25]],"date-time":"2014-04-25T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1398384000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Entropy"],"abstract":"<jats:p>We apply measures of complexity, emergence, and self-organization to an urban traffic model for comparing a traditional traffic-light coordination method with a self-organizing method in two scenarios: cyclic boundaries and non-orientable boundaries. We show that the measures are useful to identify and characterize different dynamical phases. It becomes clear that different operation regimes are required for different traffic demands. Thus, not only is traffic a non-stationary problem, requiring controllers to adapt constantly; controllers must also change drastically the complexity of their behavior depending on the demand. Based on our measures and extending Ashby\u2019s law of requisite variety, we can say that the self-organizing method achieves an adaptability level comparable to that of a living system.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/e16052384","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2014,4,28]],"date-time":"2014-04-28T05:15:00Z","timestamp":1398662100000},"page":"2384-2407","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":46,"title":["Measuring the Complexity of Self-Organizing Traffic Lights"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"16","author":[{"given":"Dar\u00edo","family":"Zubillaga","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Ciencias de la Computaci\u00f3n, Instituto de Investigaciones en Matem\u00e1ticas Aplicadas y en Sistemas, Universidad Nacional Aut\u00f3noma de M\u00e9xico, 04510 M\u00e9xico DF, Mexico"},{"name":"Posgrado en Ciencia e Ingenier\u00eda de la Computaci\u00f3n, Universidad Nacional Aut\u00f3noma de M\u00e9xico, 04510 M\u00e9xico DF, Mexico"}]},{"given":"Geovany","family":"Cruz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Ciencias de la Computaci\u00f3n, Instituto de Investigaciones en Matem\u00e1ticas Aplicadas y en Sistemas, Universidad Nacional Aut\u00f3noma de M\u00e9xico, 04510 M\u00e9xico DF, Mexico"},{"name":"Tecnol\u00f3gico de Estudios Superiores de Jocotitl\u00e1n, 50700 Jocotitln, Mexico"}]},{"given":"Luis","family":"Aguilar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Ciencias de la Computaci\u00f3n, Instituto de Investigaciones en Matem\u00e1ticas Aplicadas y en Sistemas, Universidad Nacional Aut\u00f3noma de M\u00e9xico, 04510 M\u00e9xico DF, Mexico"},{"name":"Tecnol\u00f3gico de Estudios Superiores de Jocotitl\u00e1n, 50700 Jocotitln, Mexico"}]},{"given":"Jorge","family":"Zapot\u00e9catl","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Ciencias de la Computaci\u00f3n, Instituto de Investigaciones en Matem\u00e1ticas Aplicadas y en Sistemas, Universidad Nacional Aut\u00f3noma de M\u00e9xico, 04510 M\u00e9xico DF, Mexico"},{"name":"Posgrado en Ciencia e Ingenier\u00eda de la Computaci\u00f3n, Universidad Nacional Aut\u00f3noma de M\u00e9xico, 04510 M\u00e9xico DF, Mexico"}]},{"given":"Nelson","family":"Fern\u00e1ndez","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Laboratorio de Hidroinform\u00e1tica, Facultad de Ciencias B\u00e1sicas, Univesidad de Pamplona, Pamplona 31009, Colombia"},{"name":"Centro de Micro-electr\u00f3nica y Sistemas Distribuidos, Universidad de los Andes, M\u00e9rida 5101, Venezuela"}]},{"given":"Jos\u00e9","family":"Aguilar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Centro de Micro-electr\u00f3nica y Sistemas Distribuidos, Universidad de los Andes, M\u00e9rida 5101, Venezuela"}]},{"given":"David","family":"Rosenblueth","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Ciencias de la Computaci\u00f3n, Instituto de Investigaciones en Matem\u00e1ticas Aplicadas y en Sistemas, Universidad Nacional Aut\u00f3noma de M\u00e9xico, 04510 M\u00e9xico DF, Mexico"},{"name":"Centro de Ciencias de la Complejidad, Universidad Nacional Aut\u00f3noma de M\u00e9xico, 04510 M\u00e9xico DF, Mexico"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0193-3067","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Carlos","family":"Gershenson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Departamento de Ciencias de la Computaci\u00f3n, Instituto de Investigaciones en Matem\u00e1ticas Aplicadas y en Sistemas, Universidad Nacional Aut\u00f3noma de M\u00e9xico, 04510 M\u00e9xico DF, Mexico"},{"name":"Centro de Ciencias de la Complejidad, Universidad Nacional Aut\u00f3noma de M\u00e9xico, 04510 M\u00e9xico DF, Mexico"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2014,4,25]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1172","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1088665","article-title":"Human Population: The Next Half Century","volume":"302","author":"Cohen","year":"2003","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"900","DOI":"10.1038\/467900a","article-title":"Cities: The century of the city","volume":"467","author":"Butler","year":"2010","journal-title":"Nature"},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"540","DOI":"10.1126\/science.333.6042.540","article-title":"9 Billion?","volume":"333","author":"Roberts","year":"2011","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"592","DOI":"10.1126\/science.1209264","article-title":"Cities, Productivity, and Quality of Life","volume":"333","author":"Glaeser","year":"2011","journal-title":"Science"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"7301","DOI":"10.1073\/pnas.0610172104","article-title":"Growth, innovation, scaling, and the pace of life in cities","volume":"104","author":"Bettencourt","year":"2007","journal-title":"Proc. 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