A new cellular automaton model for traffic flow considering realistic turn signal effect

Abstract

In real traffic, any vehicle must give lane-changing signal (i.e. the turn signal) before changing lanes; at this time, the vehicles behind the lane-changing vehicle will be hindered and may form “plugs” due to the turn signal effect. However, few studies focus on exploring the effect. In this paper, the turn signal effect was taken into account by proposing a new symmetric two-lane cellular automaton (T-STCA) model, and the new model was set to compare with the STCA, H-STCA and A-STCA models. Numerical results show that using the T-STCA model to describe lane-changing or overtaking, the process appeared in several consecutive time steps; while using the other three models, the process appeared only in one time step. In addition, the T-STCA model could describe the mixed traffic flow more realistically and the turn signal effect could help the plugs to dissolve more quickly.