%0 Journal Article %J {PLoS ONE} %D 2011 %T Self-organization leads to supraoptimal performance in public transportation systems %A Carlos Gershenson %X The performance of public transportation systems affects a large part of the population. Current theory assumes that passengers are served optimally when vehicles arrive at stations with regular intervals. In this paper, it is shown that self-organization can improve the performance of public transportation systems beyond the theoretical optimum by responding adaptively to local conditions. This is possible because of a ``slower-is-faster'' effect, where passengers wait more time at stations but total travel times are reduced. The proposed self-organizing method uses ``antipheromones'' to regulate headways, which are inspired by the stigmergy (communication via environment) of some ant colonies. %B {PLoS ONE} %V 6 %P e21469 %G eng %U http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0021469 %R 10.1371/journal.pone.0021469