Dual cruise-control limit cellular automaton model with cell length refinement in the framework of the three-phase traffic theory

Abstract

In this study, a new dual cruise-control limit cellular automaton model with a refined cell length, where vehicles moving with high or low velocity are not affected by noise and the slow-to-start rule is incorporated for standing vehicles with just one free cell in front, is established. In the new refined model, one sets each cell and each vehicle to 2.5 m and 7.5 m in length, respectively. Computer simulation results have shown that the new refined model can successfully reproduce the empirical features of three-phase traffic flow theory including 2Z-characteristic for phase transitions, whether vehicles are uniformly distributed, densely distributed or randomly distributed on the road first. Furthermore, one also finds that the slope tgα of the linear synchronous flow varies with the delay probability p and the maximum value of low velocity v LM in the synchronized flow region. Under homogeneous distribution, the linear synchronous flow with double slopes (tgα, tgβ) is first discovered for the case of 3 ⩽ v LM ⩽ 5. Under random distribution, all possible co-existence phases of three-phase traffic flow are presented in the fundamental diagram.