Heterogeneous platoon flow dispersion model based on truncated mixed simplified phase‐type distribution of travel speed

Abstract

SummaryExisting research on platoon dispersion models either describe homogeneous traffic flow feature, or are in lack of analytical solutions. By analyzing the field data, the truncated mixed simplified phase‐type distribution is proved to be capable of capturing the characteristics of heterogeneous traffic flow with an excellent fitting result. In light of this, we derive a generic heterogeneous platoon dispersion model with truncated mixed simplified phase‐type of speed in the forms of integrable functions. Numerical case studies are conducted to compare the performance of the proposed model and the conventional models (i.e., the Robertson model and truncated mixed Gaussian model). The results show that the proposed model not only better captures the platoon dispersion laws of heterogeneous traffic flow, but also presents higher computational efficiency, which provides practical implications on traffic signal control. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.