Understanding widely scattered traffic flows, the capacity drop, platoons, and times-to-collision as effects of variance-driven time gaps

Details Understanding widely scattered traffic flows, the capacity drop, platoons, and times-to-collision as effects of variance-driven time gaps Understanding widely scattered traffic flows, the capacity drop, platoons, and times-to-collision as effects of variance-driven time gaps

2005-08-30

arxiv.org/abs/physics/0508222v1

Phys. Rev. E 74, 016123 (2006)

Physics

Physics and Society

Submitted to Phys. Rev. E

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevE.74.016123

We investigate the adaptation of the time headways in car-following models as a function of the local velocity variance, which is a measure of the inhomogeneity of traffic flow. We apply this mechanism to several car-following models and simulate traffic breakdowns in open systems with an on-ramp as bottleneck. Single-vehicle data generated by several 'virtual detectors' show a semi-quantitative agreement with microscopic data from the Dutch freeway A9. This includes the observed distributions of the net time headways and times-to-collision for free and congested traffic. While the times-to-collision show a nearly universal distribution in free and congested traffic, the modal value of the time headway distribution is shifted by a factor of about two in congested conditions. Macroscopically, this corresponds to the 'capacity drop' at the transition from free to congested traffic. Finally, we explain the wide scattering of one-minute flow-density data by a self-organized variance-driven process that leads to the spontaneous formation and decay of long-lived platoons even for deterministic dynamics on a single lane.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Understanding widely scattered traffic flows, the capacity drop, platoons, and times-to-collision as effects of variance-driven time gaps does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Understanding widely scattered traffic flows, the capacity drop, platoons, and times-to-collision as effects of variance-driven time gaps, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Understanding widely scattered traffic flows, the capacity drop, platoons, and times-to-collision as effects of variance-driven time gaps will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-20988