Abstract
We study the duration of “high-flow states” in freeway traffic, defined as the time periods for which traffic flows exceed a given flow threshold. Our empirical data are surprisingly well represented by a power law. Moreover, the power law exponent for a two-lane freeway seems to be independent of the chosen flow threshold. In order to interpret this discovery, we investigate a simple theoretical model of heterogeneous traffic with overtaking maneuvers, which is able to reproduce both, the empirical power law and its exponent.
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Helbing, D., Tilch, B. A power law for the duration of high-flow states and its interpretation from a heterogeneous traffic flow perspective. Eur. Phys. J. B 68, 577–586 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2009-00092-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2009-00092-8