Prof. Dennis Berino
April 3, 2012
Case Study
Southwestern University Traffic Problems
Submitted by:
Bullen, Nino Joseph
Comandao, Isaac
Donato, Anna Rica I. Background
Southwestern University is experiencing an increased interest in its football program since it hired a big-name coach. As such, there have been increased sales in their season tickets. This increase in sales has also increased the traffic problem of the town which is also projected to get worst once the new stadium is build. To solve the problem, the Marty Starr the University’s president has asked the University Planning Committee to solve the problem. Based on the traffic projections that the University has made, it was concluded by Dr. Starr that the roads leading to the interstate highway from the stadium should have a sufficient capacity of 35,000 cars per hour. In order to solve the problem, the Planning Committee is looking at widening some of the current streets from the stadium to the interstate highway to increase its current capacity.
II. Problem
The main problem of the case is: How to maximize the traffic flow in order to accommodate 35,000 cars per hour from the stadium to the interstate highway?
The sub-problems that needs to answered are: 1. What is the maximum number of cars that may actually travel from the stadium to the interstate per hour? Why is this number not equal to 33,000, as Dr. Lee suggested? 2. If the cost for expanding a street were the same for each street, which street(s) would you recommend expanding to increase the capacity to 33,000? Which streets would you recommend expanding to get the total capacity of the system to 35,000 per hour?
III. Objective
The group aims to identify the best traffic flow that can accommodate 35,000 cars per hour from the stadium to the interstate highway.
IV. Case Facts and Information
Due to the