Impact of the Next-Nearest-Neighbor Interaction on Traffic Flow of Highway with Slopes

In this paper,we study the motion course of traffic flow on the slopes of a highway by applying a microscopic traffic model,which takes into account the next-nearest-neighbor interaction in an intelligent transportation system environment.Three common gradients of the highway,which are sag terrain,uphill terrain,and downhill terrain on a single-lane roadway,are selected to clarify the impact on the traffic flow by the next-nearest-neighbor interaction in relative velocity.We obtain the current-density relation for traffic flow on the sag,the uphill and the downhill under the next-nearest-neighbor interaction strategy.It is observed that the current saturates when the density is greater than a critical value and the current decreases when the density is greater than another critical value.When the density falls into the intermediate range between the two critical densities it is also found that the oscillatory jam,easily leads to traffic accidents,often appears in the downhill stage,and the next-nearest-neighbor interaction in relative velocity has a strong suppressing effect on this kind of dangerous congestion.A theoretical analysis is also presented to explain this important conclusion.