Enhancement and Stabilization of Traffic Flow with Vehicles Moving in Groups.

Abstract

The traffic behavior is investigated for vehicles moving in groups (platooning) analytically and numerically. The car-following model of traffic is extended to take into account a binary mixture of vehicles. It is shown that the moving in groups stabilizes the traffic flow. The jamming transition between the freely moving and jammed phases occurs at a higher density than the threshold of the original car-following model. The traffic current is enhanced at a high density region by keeping a short headway. The jamming transition is analyzed with the use of the linear stability method. It is found that the theoretical neutral stability curve is in good agreement with the transition line obtained by the simulation result. It is shown that the moving in groups has a significant effect on the enhancement of traffic current.