Phase diagram of speed gradient model with an on-ramp

In this paper, phase transitions are investigated in speed gradient model with an on-ramp. Phase diagrams of traffic flow composed of manually driven vehicles and adaptive cruise control (ACC) vehicles are studied, respectively. The traffic flow composed of ACC vehicles is modeled by enhancing propagation speed of small disturbance. The phase diagram of traffic flow composed of manually driven vehicles is similar to that in previous works, in which such states as pinned localized cluster (PLC), moving localized cluster (MLC), triggered stop-and-go traffic (TSG), oscillatory congested traffic (OCT), and homogeneous congested traffic (HCT) are reproduced. In the phase diagram of traffic flow composed of ACC vehicles, traffic stability is enhanced and such states as PLC, MLC, and TSG disappear. Furthermore, some interesting phenomena, such as stationary OCT upstream of on-ramp and appearance of second OCT in HCT, are identified.     

Phase transition of traffic states with on-ramp

We study the phase transition on a highway in a modified anisotropic continuum model with an on-ramp, which is recently developed by Gupta and Katiyar (J. Phys. A: Math. Nucl. Gen. 38 (2005) 4069]. To investigate whether this model can describe several distinct traffic states that are identified from real-traffic data [Kerner and Rehborn, Phys. Rev. Lett. 79 (1997) 4030; Kerner, Phys. Rev. Lett. 81 (1998) 3797], we carry out numerical simulations with an open boundary condition. The observed transition between free flow and various types of congested flow such as localized clusters, stop-and-go traffic and different kinds of synchronized traffic flow is obtained by applying a triggering pulse through an on-ramp in our simulation.We present the phase diagram for three representative values of the upstream boundary flux and for the whole range of the on-ramp flux. Several states like pinned localized cluster, triggered stop-and-go, recurring hump state, the oscillatory congested traffic and the homogeneous congested traffic are observed in phase transition from free flow to traffic-jam state. The phase diagram for our model near on-ramp is consistent with the results obtained by Lee et al. [Phys. Rev. E 59(5) (1999) 5101]. The results suggest that the modified model is able to describe all the three phases of traffic-flow theory developed by Kerner [Physica A 333 (2004) 379].     

A New Lattice Model of Two-Lane Traffic Flow with the Consideration of the Honk Effect

In this paper, a new lattice model of two-lane traffic flow with the honk effect term is proposed to study the influence of the honk effect on wide moving jams under lane changing. The linear stability condition on two-lane highway is obtained by applying the linear stability theory. The modified Korteweg-de Vries (KdV) equation near the critical point is derived and the coexisting curves resulted from the modified KdV equation can be described, which shows that the critical point, the coexisting curve and the neutral stability line decrease with increasing the honk effect coefficient. A wide moving jam can be conceivably described approximately in the unstable region. Numerical simulation is performed to verify the analytic results. The results show that the honk effect could suppress effectively the congested traffic patterns about wide moving jam propagation in lattice model of two-lane traffic flow.     

混合非机动车流的多值元胞机模型模拟研究

采用多值元胞机模型对混合非机动车流进行了建模模拟研究. 混合非机动车流在我国城市交通中主要表现为三轮车和自行车的混合. 针对三轮车和自行车实际尺寸的差异,设定自行车占据一个单位空间,三轮车占据两个单位空间. 模拟结果显示：在三轮车与慢速自行车混合的系统中,三轮车比例和三轮车先行概率不会对系统流量造成影响,而三轮车先行概率只会影响到车辆的平均速度;在三轮车与快速自行车混合的系统中,确定性条件下在自由流区域和堵塞流区域都会出现多分支现象,快速自行车具有慢化概率时多分支现象消失. 关键词： 混合非机动车流 元胞自动机 多分支     

Phase diagrams in unidirectionally coupled map lattice for open traffic flow

The jamming transition from the free traffic to the oscillatory traffic is investigated with the unidirectionally coupled map lattice model which has the hyperbolic tangent local map. Spatio-temporal structures in the jamming transition are found with the use of numerical simulation. The traffic states are studied for both constant and noisy boundary conditions. We show the phase diagrams of different kinds of congested traffic. It is found that the noise at the boundary has an important effect on the traffic states. The traffic behavior in the coupled map lattice model exhibits a jamming transition similar to that found in the car-following model.     

Flow difference effect in the lattice hydrodynamic model

In this paper, a new lattice hydrodynamic model based on Nagatani's model [Nagatani T 1998 Physica A 261 599] is presented by introducing the flow difference effect. The stability condition for the new model is obtained by using the linear stability theory. The result shows that considering the flow difference effect leads to stabilization of the system compared with the original lattice hydrodynamic model. The jamming transitions among the freely moving phase, the coexisting phase, and the uniform congested phase are studied by nonlinear analysis. The modified KdV equation near the critical point is derived to describe the traffic jam, and kink--antikink soliton solutions related to the traffic density waves are obtained. The simulation results are consistent with the theoretical analysis for the new model.     

Adaptive decentralized congestion avoidance in two-dimensional traffic

This paper studies congestion avoidance in a simple two-dimensional traffic system, using computer simulation. The mobile objects avoid congestion among themselves using simple congestion-avoiding traffic rules. The objects adaptively avoid congested regions and move towards less congested regions. The objects avoid congestion in decentralized manner based only on congestion levels in their local regions. It is found that the adaptive decentralized congestion-avoiding traffic rules prevent the traffic from undergoing congestion phase transition at low critical density. The congestion avoidance significantly increases the traffic capacity. The congestion-avoiding traffic rules increase the traffic capacity by keeping the emerging congestion and traffic hot spots small, localized, and temporary. Due to congestion avoidance, the travel time of objects is high and the amount of flow is low. The congestion-avoiding traffic eventually undergoes phase transition from free flow to jammed state, but at high critical density.     

Time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau equation in a car-following model considering the driver’s physical delay

In this paper, an extended car-following model considering the delay of the driver’s response in sensing headway is proposed to describe the traffic jam. It is shown that the stability region decreases when the driver’s physical delay in sensing headway increases. The phase transition among the freely moving phase, the coexisting phase, and the uniformly congested phase occurs below the critical point. By applying the reductive perturbation method, we get the time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau (TDGL) equation from the car-following model to describe the transition and critical phenomenon in traffic flow. We show the connection between the TDGL equation and the mKdV equation describing the traffic jam.     

Presence of many stable nonhomogeneous states in an inertial car-following model

We present a single lane car- following model of traffic flow which is inertial and free of collisions. It demonstrates observed features of traffic flow such as existence of three regimes: free, nonhomogeneous congested (NHC) or synchronized, and homogeneous congested (HC) or jammed flow; bistability of free and NHC flow states in a range of densities, hysteresis in transitions between these states; jumps in the density-flux plane in the NHC regime; gradual spatial transition from synchronized to free flow; long survival time of jams in the HC regime. The model predicts that in the NHC regime there exist many stable states with different wavelengths, and noise can cause transitions between them.     

Lattice hydrodynamic model with bidirectional pedestrian flow

The two-dimensional lattice hydrodynamic model of traffic is extended to the two-dimensional bidirectional pedestrian flow via taking four types of pedestrians into account. The stability condition and the mKdV equation to describe the density wave of pedestrian congestion are obtained by linear stability and nonlinear analysis, respectively. In addition, there exist three phase transitions among the freely moving phase, the coexisting phase and the uniformly congested phase in the phase diagram. It can also be found that the critical point a_c refers to not only the fraction c₁ of the eastbound and westbound pedestrians, but also the fraction c₂ of the northbound and southbound pedestrians. However, the critical point a_c could not appear in the phase diagram and congested crowd at any time when two fractions are equal to same value of 0.5 (c₁=c₂=0.5). Furthermore, numerical simulation is carried out to examine the performance of such a model and the results show coincidence with the theory analysis results.     

Exploring jamming transitions and density waves in bidirectional pedestrian traffic

In this paper we propose a two-dimensional lattice hydrodynamic model considering path change in the bidirectional flow of pedestrians on the road. The stability condition and the mKdV equation describing the density wave of pedestrian traffic jamming are obtained by linear stability and nonlinear analyses. The phase diagram produced from these analyses indicates that the phase transition occurs amongst the freely moving phase, the coexisting phase and the uniformly congested phase below the critical point a_c. Additionally the results reveal the existence of a critical magnitude of path change (γ_c). Once the magnitude of path change exceeds the critical value, it gives rise to unstable density waves. Moreover, numerical simulations are performed and the results are in accordance with the theoretical analyses.     

Nonequilibrium spatio-temporal selforganization due to delayed negative feedback

A soft transition of a nonequilibrium system to an oscillatory or a wave state is shown to be stipulated by the effectively delayed negative feedback. The transition to the wave states is considered for the model system implying temporal and spatial nonlocalities. In the vicinity of the critical point the behaviour of the system is described by the slow dynamics of two complex order parameters. The two different types of branching solutions-running and standing waves—can not be stable simultaneoully.     

混合状态下城市快速路交通流短时预测

建立交通流短时预测状态空间模型, 研究混合状态下城市快速路交通流短时预测. 结合城市快速路自由流状态、拥挤流状态和阻塞流状态下交通流参数的时间和空间分布特性, 基于交通流守恒方程和速度动态模型, 借鉴偏微分方程组求解时空离散的思想, 建立三种状态下交通流短时预测模型; 同时考虑进出口匝道、车道数变更以及道路坡度等因素的影响, 将交通流短时预测模型转化为交通流短时预测状态空间模型, 实现混合状态下交通流短时预测. 研究表明, 该方法能够实现混合状态下道路网内的交通流短时预测, 预测精度可达90.23%. 相同条件下, 经典自回归滑动平均模型的预测精度仅为81%. 关键词： 交通流短时预测 自由流状态 拥挤流状态 阻塞流状态     

The green wave model of two-dimensional traffic: Transitions in the flow properties and in the geometry of the traffic jam

We carried out computer simulations to study the green wave model (GWM), the parallel updating version of the two-dimensional traffic model of Biham et al. The better convergence properties of the GWM together with a multi-spin coding technique enabled us to extrapolate to the infinite system size which indicates a nonzero density transition from the free flow to the congested state (jamming transition). In spite of the sudden change in the symmetry of the correlation function at the transition point, finite size scaling and temporal scaling seems to hold, at least above the threshold density. There is a second transition point at a density deep in the congested phase where the geometry of the cluster of jammed cars changes from linear to branched: Just at this transition point this cluster has fractal geometry with dimension 1.58. The jamming transition is also described within the mean field approach.     

Theoretical vs. empirical classification and prediction of congested traffic states

Starting from the instability diagram of a traffic flow model, we derive conditions for the occurrence of congested traffic states, their appearance, their spreading in space and time, and the related increase in travel times. We discuss the terminology of traffic phases and give empirical evidence for the existence of a phase diagram of traffic states. In contrast to previously presented phase diagrams, it is shown that “widening synchronized patterns” are possible, if the maximum flow is located inside of a metastable density regime. Moreover, for various kinds of traffic models with different instability diagrams it is discussed, how the related phase diagrams are expected to approximately look like. Apart from this, it is pointed out that combinations of on- and off-ramps create different patterns than a single, isolated on-ramp.     

An empirical study of common traffic congestion features based on traffic data measured in the USA,the UK,and Germany

Based on real traffic data measured on American, UK and German freeways, we study common features of traffic congestion. We have found that traffic features [J] and [S] defining traffic phases “wide moving jam” (J) and “synchronized flow” (S) in Kerner’s three-phase theory are indeed common spatiotemporal traffic features observed in the UK, the USA and Germany. For the testing of Kerner’s “line J”, representing the propagation of the wide moving jam’s downstream front, four different methods for a study of moving jam propagation in empirical data are studied and compared for each congested traffic situation occurring in the three countries. A statistical study of velocities of wide moving jam fronts is presented, which has been performed through the analysis of database containing more than 280.000 min of observed wide moving jams measured on about 1200 km long freeway network in Hessen (Germany) during more than two years.     

An improved cellular automaton model considering the effect of traffic lights and driving behaviour

This paper proposes an improved cellular automaton model to describe the urban traffic flow with the consideration of traffic light and driving behaviour effects. Based on the model,the characteristics of the urban traffic flow on a single-lane road are investigated under three different control strategies,i.e.,the synchronized,the green wave and the random strategies. The fundamental diagrams and time-space patterns of the traffic flows are provided for these strategies respectively. It finds that the dynamical transition to the congested flow appears when the vehicle density is higher than a critical level. The saturated flow is less dependent on the cycle time and the strategies of the traffic light control,while the critical vehicle density varies with the cycle time and the strategies. Simulated results indicate that the green wave strategy is proven to be the most effective one among the above three control strategies.     

A macro traffic flow model with probability distribution function

In this paper, we introduce three probability distribution functions into the dynamic equation and propose a macro traffic flow model to investigate the impacts of the probability distribution functions on the evolutions of traffic flow under three typical states (i.e., uniform flow, shock, rarefaction wave, and small perturbation). The numerical results indicate that the probability distribution functions do not change the density and speed distributions of uniform flow, produce a two-layer shock but have no prominent effects on rarefaction wave, and have little effect on small perturbation.     

A study of wide moving jams in a new lattice model of traffic flow with the consideration of the driver anticipation effect and numerical simulation

In this paper, a new lattice model of traffic flow is proposed to investigate wide moving jams in traffic flow with the consideration of the driver anticipation information about two preceding sites. The linear stability condition is obtained by using linear stability analysis. The mKdV equation is derived through nonlinear analysis, which can be conceivably taken as an approximation to a wide moving jam. Numerical simulation also confirms that the congested traffic patterns about wide moving jam propagation in accordance with empirical results can be suppressed efficiently by taking the driver anticipation effect of two preceding sites into account in a new lattice model.     

The influence of nonmonotonic synchronized flow branch in a cellular automaton traffic flow model

In this paper we study the congested patterns upstream of an isolated on-ramp in a cellular automaton traffic flow model, which is proposed in our previous paper [Cheng-Jie Jin, Wei Wang, Rui Jiang, Kun Gao, J. Stat. Mech (2010) P03018]. The simulation results under open boundary conditions are presented by spatiotemporal diagrams. Our diagram of congested patterns is quite similar to that of the cellular automaton models within Kerner’s three-phase traffic theory, while some differences in the “moving synchronized flow pattern” (MSP) should be noted. In our model the upstream front of MSP propagates not only upstream, but also downstream. The propagation direction depends on the flow rates and densities of free flow and synchronized flow. Besides, in our model the outflow of wide moving jams or bottlenecks could be free flow or synchronized flow, as reported in many empirical data. In the dissolving of congestions, the form of free flow may be hindered and stable synchronized flow may emerge. This phenomenon can help us understand more about the outflow. All the interesting characteristics of our model are due to the nonmonotonic structure of synchronized flow branch in the fundamental diagram, which has not been found in previous models.