38 research outputs found
Probabilistic Description of Traffic Breakdowns
We analyze the characteristic features of traffic breakdown. To describe this
phenomenon we apply to the probabilistic model regarding the jam emergence as
the formation of a large car cluster on highway. In these terms the breakdown
occurs through the formation of a certain critical nucleus in the metastable
vehicle flow, which enables us to confine ourselves to one cluster model. We
assume that, first, the growth of the car cluster is governed by attachment of
cars to the cluster whose rate is mainly determined by the mean headway
distance between the car in the vehicle flow and, may be, also by the headway
distance in the cluster. Second, the cluster dissolution is determined by the
car escape from the cluster whose rate depends on the cluster size directly.
The latter is justified using the available experimental data for the
correlation properties of the synchronized mode. We write the appropriate
master equation converted then into the Fokker-Plank equation for the cluster
distribution function and analyze the formation of the critical car cluster due
to the climb over a certain potential barrier. The further cluster growth
irreversibly gives rise to the jam formation. Numerical estimates of the
obtained characteristics and the experimental data of the traffic breakdown are
compared. In particular, we draw a conclusion that the characteristic intrinsic
time scale of the breakdown phenomenon should be about one minute and explain
the case why the traffic volume interval inside which traffic breakdown is
observed is sufficiently wide.Comment: RevTeX 4, 14 pages, 10 figure