SINGLE LANE TRAFFIC THEORY AND EXPERIMENT

A GENERAL DISCUSSION IS GIVEN OF A CAR-FOLLOWING THEORY IN WHICH THE ACCELERATION AT TIME T OF A CAR ATTEMPTING TO FOLLOW A LEAD CAR IS PROPORTIONAL TO THE RELATIVE VELOCITY AT A RETARDED TIME T MINUS TIME LAG AND IN WHICH THE PROPORTIONALITY COEFFICIENT IS TAKEN TO BE CONSTANT, A STEP FUNCTION OR INVERSELY PROPORTIONAL TO THE CAR SPACING. THE QUESTION OF LOCAL AND ASYMTOTIC STABILITY IS ALSO DISCUSSED FOR TRAFFIC THAT OBEYS THE SAME TYPE OF STIMULUS RESPONSE EQUATIONS IN SINGLE LANE FLOW WITH NO PASSING ALLOWED. A NUMBER OF TRAFFIC EQUATIONS OF STATE, I.E. RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN TRAFFIC FLOW AND CONCENTRATION, ARE DESCRIBED AND THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE STEADY STATE FLOW FOR THE MODEL IN WHICH THE PROPORTIONALITY COEFFICIENT DEPENDS INVERSELY ON THE CAR SPACING ARE COMPARED WITH EXPERIMENT. FOLLOW-THE- LEADER EXPERIMENTS WERE CARRIED OUT IN VARIOUS PARTS OF THE VEHICULAR TUNNELS IN NEW YORK CITY, IN PARTICULAR THE HOLLAND AND LINCOLN TUNNELS. THESE EXPERIMENTS YIELD CHARACTERISTIC SPEEDS ON A MICROSCOPIC BASIS THAT COMPARE VERY FAVORABLY WITH THOSE OBTAINED BY MAKING MACROSCOPIC MEASUREMENTS OF OVERALL FLOW AND CONCENTRATIONS. A BRIEF PRELIMINARY DISCUSSION IS ALSO GIVEN OF THE PROBLEM OF MEASUREMENT OF MACROSCOPIC QUANTITIES SUCH AS THE MEAN SPEED. /AUTHOR/

• Supplemental Notes:
  • Theory of TRAFFIC FLOW, PROCEEDINGS, PP 120-146, 20 FIG,
• Corporate Authors:

  Elsevier

  Radarweg 29
  Amsterdam,   Netherlands  1043 NX
• Authors:
  • Herman, R
  • Potts, R B
• Publication Date: 0

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Acceleration (Mechanics); Car following; Coefficients; Equations; Mathematical models; Measurement; Single lane traffic; Spacing; Speed; Steady state; Theory; Traffic flow; Vehicular tunnels
• Uncontrolled Terms: Models; Relationships
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00227108
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 13 2004 6:47PM