  We apply measures of complexity, emergence and self-organization to an
abstract city traffic model for comparing a traditional traffic 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
traffic is a non-stationary problem, which requires controllers to adapt
constantly. Controllers must also change drastically the complexity of their
behavior depending on the demand. Based on our measures, we can say that the
self-organizing method achieves an adaptability level comparable to a living
system.
