Traffic intersection characteristics with accidents and evacuation of damaged cars

Abstract

Car accidents is a major source of congestion that affect the traffic dynamic especially in urban network. In this paper, we studied the impact of evacuation time (T) of damaged cars and transmission probability (r) on traffic characteristics when a car accident occurs at the intersection of two roads. Traffic is temporary stuck for T time steps then the vehicles involved in collision will be removed from the system. Simulation results show the existence of a critical evacuation time (injection rate α) after which the variation of injection rate (evacuation time) hasn’t any effect on neither the flow nor the probability of accidents Pac. Moreover, when α≤0.02 or α>0.1, the system exhibits a second order transition from Low Density Phase (LDP) to High Density Phase (HDP). However, the transition is of first order when 0.02 ¡ α≤0.1. Furthermore, car accidents take place if α is higher than a critical value αc. This value does not depend on T when T<40 or T>60. Nonetheless, it depends strongly on T if 40≤T≤60. The effects of the transmission probability and the probability to have a collision p’ are also studied. Likewise, different phase diagrams of the system are discussed.