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Delay times in a cellular traffic flow model for road sections with periodic outflow

The European Physical Journal B volume 63, pages 255–264 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract.

A simple cellular automaton to model traffic flow is used to analyze the impact of traffic lights on travel times. The model is investigated on a stretch of road with open boundaries, where the inflow is driven stochastically, but the outflow is controlled by a traffic light with periodically changing outflow rates. Especially in the transition regime from free flow to oversaturated flow, the detailed space-time structure can be used to derive analytical lower and upper boundaries for the travel time function. The analytical results have been verified by a simulation study. The function displays a strong non-trivial dependency on the length of the system, which is at odds with a well-known formula derived almost 50 years ago by Webster. Such a model is interesting both from a theoretical point of view and for applications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. German Aerospace Center (DLR), Institute of Transportation Systems, Rutherfordstr. 2, 12489, Berlin, Germany

    T. Neumann & P. Wagner

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  1. T. Neumann
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  2. P. Wagner
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Correspondence to T. Neumann.

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Neumann, T., Wagner, P. Delay times in a cellular traffic flow model for road sections with periodic outflow. Eur. Phys. J. B 63, 255–264 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2008-00234-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2008-00234-6

PACS.

  • 45.70.Vn Granular models of complex systems; traffic flow