Continuum modeling for two-lane traffic flow

In this paper, we study the continuum modeling of traffic dynamics for two-lane freeways. A new dynamics model is proposed, which contains the speed gradient-based momentum equations derived from a car-following theory suited to two-lane traffic flow. The conditions for securing the linear stability of the new model are presented. Numerical tests are carried out and some nonequilibrium phenomena are observed, such as small disturbance instability, stop-and-go waves, local clusters and phase transition. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (70521001) The English text was polished by Yunming Chen.