dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaUnderstanding widely scattered traffic flows, the capacity drop, platoons, and times-to-collision as effects of variance-driven time gaps
| Authors | Martin Treiber, Arne Kesting, Dirk Helbing |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0508222 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0508222 |
| DOI | 10.1103/PhysRevE.74.016123 |
| Journal | Phys. Rev. E 74, 016123 (2006) |
Abstract
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.
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"abstract": "We investigate the adaptation of the time headways in car-following models as\na function of the local velocity variance, which is a measure of the\ninhomogeneity of traffic flow. We apply this mechanism to several car-following\nmodels and simulate traffic breakdowns in open systems with an on-ramp as\nbottleneck. Single-vehicle data generated by several \u0027virtual detectors\u0027 show a\nsemi-quantitative agreement with microscopic data from the Dutch freeway A9.\nThis includes the observed distributions of the net time headways and\ntimes-to-collision for free and congested traffic. While the times-to-collision\nshow a nearly universal distribution in free and congested traffic, the modal\nvalue of the time headway distribution is shifted by a factor of about two in\ncongested conditions. Macroscopically, this corresponds to the \u0027capacity drop\u0027\nat the transition from free to congested traffic. Finally, we explain the wide\nscattering of one-minute flow-density data by a self-organized variance-driven\nprocess that leads to the spontaneous formation and decay of long-lived\nplatoons even for deterministic dynamics on a single lane.",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0508222",
"authors": [
"Martin Treiber",
"Arne Kesting",
"Dirk Helbing"
],
"categories": [
"physics.soc-ph"
],
"doi": "10.1103/PhysRevE.74.016123",
"journal_ref": "Phys. Rev. E 74, 016123 (2006)",
"title": "Understanding widely scattered traffic flows, the capacity drop, platoons, and times-to-collision as effects of variance-driven time gaps",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0508222"
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