It is postulated that lane-changing vehicles create voids in traffic streams, and that these voids reduce flow. This mechanism is described with a model that tracks lane changers precisely, as particles endowed with realistic mechanical properties. The model has four easy-to-measure parameters...

This paper studies traffic hysteresis arising in traffic oscillations from a behavioral perspective. It is found that the occurrence and type of traffic hysteresis is closely correlated with driver behavior when experiencing traffic oscillations and with the time driver reaction begins relative...

This paper extends an existing continuum multi-lane formulation for traffic flow, provides a discrete formulation for its numerical solution, and show initial results. The new formulation enables a natural treatment of boundary conditions such as merges, diverges, lane-drops and moving...

This report is part of PATH Task Order 4141 and shows how moving obstructions can be modeled numerically with kinematic wave theory. It shows that if a moving obstruction is replaced by a sequence of fixed obstructions at nearby locations with the same "capacity", then the error in vehicle...

This paper presents a numerical method to model kinematic wave (KW) traffic streams containing slow vehicles. The slow vehicles are modeled discretely as moving boundaries that can affect the traffic stream. The proposed scheme converges in flows, densities and speeds without oscillations, and...

A multi-lane traffic flow model realistically captures the disruptive effects of lane- changing vehicles by recognizing their limited ability to accelerate. While they accelerate, these vehicles create voids in the traffic stream that affect its character. Bounded acceleration explains two...

We study the system optimum dynamic traffic assignment (SODTA) in a network consisting of a freeway and neighboring city streets. There is only one bottleneck in the freeway and every destination is somewhere downstream of the bottleneck. Vehicles can be diverted through off-ramps leading to...

This paper presents new insights on the hysteresis phenomenon in congested freeway traffic. It is found that existing theories based on different driver behavior for acceleration and deceleration are incomplete. The data suggests that one needs to consider aggressive and timid driver behavior as...

This paper applies the theory of Hamilton–Jacobi partial differential equations to the case of first-order traffic flow models. The traffic flow surface is analyzed with respect to the three 2-dimensional coordinate systems arising in the space of vehicle number, time and distance. In each...