THREE-DIMENSIONAL REPRESENTATION OF TRAFFIC FLOW

IF ONE NUMBERS VEHICLES CONSECUTIVELY ALONG A ROADWAY AND DRAWS THE SPACE--TIME TRAJECTORY OF EACH VEHICLE ON THE SAME X--T GRAPH, THEN THIS FAMILY OF CURVES CAN BE INTERPRETED AS THE CONTOURS OF A THREE- DIMENSIONAL SURFACE FOR WHICH THE THIRD DIMENSION IS VEHICLE NUMBER N. THE INTERSECTION OF THE SURFACE WITH PLANES OF CONSTANT X ARE THE CUMULATIVE ARRIVAL CURVES, N VERSUS T, AT THE LOCATION X. IF THE SURFACE IS SMOOTHED, THE ORIENTATION OF THE TANGENT PLANE AT ANY POINT DETERMINES THE FLOW Q, DENSITY K, AND CAR VELOCITY V. ALL COMMONLY OBSERVED PROPERTIES OF TRAFFIC FLOW HAVE SIMPLE GEOMETRIC INTERPRETATIONS IN THIS THREE-DIMENSIONAL MODEL. /AUTHOR/

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/1767714
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Vol 5, No 3, PP 302-313, 6 FIG, 5 REF
• Corporate Authors:

  Operations Research Society of America

  428 East Preston Street
  Baltimore, MD  United States  21202
• Authors:
  • Makigami, Y
  • Newell, G F
  • Rothery, R
• Publication Date: 0

Media Info

• Serial:
  • Transportation Science
  • Volume: 5
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)
  • ISSN: 0041-1655
  • Serial URL: http://transci.journal.informs.org/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Geometry; Mathematical models; Speed; Traffic density; Traffic flow; Traffic simulation
• Uncontrolled Terms: Models
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00227332
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Dec 20 1971 12:00AM