The Aw-Rascle traffic model with locally constrained flow

We consider solutions of the Aw-Rascle model for traffic flow fulfilling a constraint on the flux at $x=0$. Two different kinds of solutions are proposed: at $x=0$ the first one conserves both the number of vehicles and the generalized momentum, while the second one conserves only the number of cars. We study the invariant domains for these solutions and we compare the two Riemann solvers in terms of total variation of relevant quantities. Finally we construct ad hoc finite volume numerical schemes to compute these solutions.Comment: 24 page

Lagrangian GSOM traffic flow models on junctions

International audienceThis paper is concerned with the macroscopic modeling and simulation of traffic flow on junctions. More precisely, we deal with a generic class of second order models, known in the literature as the GSOM family. While classical approaches focus on the Eulerian point-of-view, here we recast the model using its Lagrangian coordinates and we treat the junction as a specific discontinuity in Lagrangian framework. We propose a complete numerical methodology based on a finite difference scheme for solving such a model and we provide a numerical example

Multiscale control of generic second order traffic models by driver-assist vehicles

We study the derivation of generic high order macroscopic traffic models from a follow-the-leader particle description via a kinetic approach. First, we recover a third order traffic model as the hydrodynamic limit of an Enskog-type kinetic equation. Next, we introduce in the vehicle interactions a binary control modelling the automatic feedback provided by driver-assist vehicles and we upscale such a new particle description by means of another Enskog-based hydrodynamic limit. The resulting macroscopic model is now a Generic Second Order Model (GSOM), which contains in turn a control term inherited from the microscopic interactions. We show that such a control may be chosen so as to optimise global traffic trends, such as the vehicle flux or the road congestion, constrained by the GSOM dynamics. By means of numerical simulations, we investigate the effect of this control hierarchy in some specific case studies, which exemplify the multiscale path from the vehicle-wise implementation of a driver-assist control to its optimal hydrodynamic design.Comment: 22 pages, 3 figure

How can macroscopic models reveal self-organization in traffic flow?

In this paper we propose a new modeling technique for vehicular traffic flow, designed for capturing at a macroscopic level some effects, due to the microscopic granularity of the flow of cars, which would be lost with a purely continuous approach. The starting point is a multiscale method for pedestrian modeling, recently introduced in Cristiani et al., Multiscale Model. Simul., 2011, in which measure-theoretic tools are used to manage the microscopic and the macroscopic scales under a unique framework. In the resulting coupled model the two scales coexist and share information, in the sense that the same system is simultaneously described from both a discrete (microscopic) and a continuous (macroscopic) perspective. This way it is possible to perform numerical simulations in which the single trajectories and the average density of the moving agents affect each other. Such a method is here revisited in order to deal with multi-population traffic flow on networks. For illustrative purposes, we focus on the simple case of the intersection of two roads. By exploiting one of the main features of the multiscale method, namely its dimension-independence, we treat one-dimensional roads and two-dimensional junctions in a natural way, without referring to classical network theory. Furthermore, thanks to the coupling between the microscopic and the macroscopic scales, we model the continuous flow of cars without losing the right amount of granularity, which characterizes the real physical system and triggers self-organization effects, such as, for example, the oscillatory patterns visible at jammed uncontrolled crossroads.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figure