Transportation Network

We present a dynamic percolation framework for studying resource depletion in transportation networks. Agents consume network edges along cost-optimal paths, causing the system to transition from functional to non-functional states. Applied to the US air transportation system, we find that unrestricted carrier cooperation could yield a 30% efficiency increase compared to the non-cooperative scenario.

We propose a bond-percolation model to describe the consumption and exhaustion of resources in transport networks. Edges forming minimum-length paths between origin-destination nodes are removed when below a budget threshold, eventually causing the network to undergo a percolation transition. We show that finite budget yields a transition identical to ordinary percolation, while infinite budget leads to a more abrupt fragmentation of the giant connected component.