A modified lattice model of traffic flow with the consideration of the downstream traffic condition

Abstract

Traffic congestion has attracted considerable attention in modern society. Many researchers have proposed tremendous traffic flow models. These models can be divided into microscopic model, mesoscopic model and macroscopic model. With the progress of technology, it is possible to get the information of the preceding vehicles, i.e. the downstream traffic condition. Drivers can adjust their driving behaviors according to the downstream condition. This mechanism has been considered in microscopic model, and it is found that this mechanism can not only stabilize the traffic, but also bring about some new phenomena, such as synchronized traffic pattern. In the macroscopic model, what will the traffic flow be after considering the mechanism? In this paper, a term describing the downstream traffic condition is added in Nagatani’s single-lane lattice model. Through theoretical study and numerical simulation, it can be found that traffic is more stable when the downstream traffic condition is considered. Besides, the modified model can reproduce the soliton wave, kink wave properly. Moreover, the amplitude and frequency of density wave with different influence forms of the front lattices on the current lattice are almost the same as found to reflect the different influence forms do not have significant effect on the stability.