Two-lane traffic simulations with a blockage induced by an accident car

Based on the two-lane traffic model proposed by Chowdhury et al., a highway traffic model with a blockage induced by an accident car is proposed, in which both symmetric lane changing rules and asymmetric lane changing rules are adopted. The fundamental diagrams and spatial-temporal profiles are presented after the numerical simulation and the jam transition is studied. It is shown that the accident car not only causes a local jam behind the accident car, but also causes vehicles to cluster in the bypass lane. The asymmetric lane changing rules are more advantageous in reducing the local jam than the symmetric lane changing rules when the accident car is in the right lane, and the symmetric lane changing rules are superior when the accident car is in the left lane. Furthermore the curves of lane-changing frequency against the total density are given. It is found that the vehicles will change lane more frequently when traffic is inhomogeneous with different types of vehicle or with an accident car.