Percolation properties in a traffic model

Abstract

As a dynamical complex system, traffic is characterized by a transition from free flow to congestions, which is mostly studied in highways. However, despite its importance in developing congestion mitigation strategies, the understanding of this common traffic phenomenon in a city scale is still missing. An open question is how the traffic in the network collapses from a global efficient traffic to isolated local flows in small clusters, i.e. the question of traffic percolation. Here we study the traffic percolation properties on a lattice by simulation of an agent-based model for traffic. A critical traffic volume in this model distinguishes the free state from the congested state of traffic. Our results show that the threshold of traffic percolation decreases with increasing traffic volume and reaches a minimum value at the critical traffic volume. We show that this minimal threshold is the result of longest spatial correlation between traffic flows at the critical traffic volume. These findings may help to develop congestion mitigation strategies in a network view.