Selecting predictors for traffic control by methods of the mathematical theory of democracy

The mathematical theory of democracy operates on the indices of popularity and universality which are used to find socially optimal representatives and representative bodies. Regarded mathematically, neither the ‘society’, nor its ‘representatives’ are necessarily human, so that some objects can represent the behavior of other objects. This idea is applied to selecting predictors of traffic jams which occur the City Ring of Hagen, Germany; the traffic situations at street intersections all over the town are regarded as representatives of future traffic situations at the Ring intersections. As a result, a reliable prediction can be attained by already five surveillance cameras installed at appropriate locations. The selection of such locations and processing the data captured by the cameras constitute the subjects of this paper.