Cf. Daganzo, THE CELL TRANSMISSION MODEL - A DYNAMIC REPRESENTATION OF HIGHWAY TRAFFIC CONSISTENT WITH THE HYDRODYNAMIC THEORY, Transportation research. Part B: methodological, 28(4), 1994, pp. 269-287
Citations number
18
Categorie Soggetti
Transportation,"Operatione Research & Management Science","Engineering, Civil
This paper presents a simple representation of traffic on a highway wi
th a single entrance and exit. The representation can be used to predi
ct traffic's evolution over time and space, including transient phenom
ena such as the building, propagation, and dissipation of queues. The
easy-to-solve difference equations used to predict traffic's evolution
are shown to be the discrete analog of the differential equations ari
sing from a special case of the hydrodynamic model of traffic flow. Th
e proposed method automatically generates appropriate changes in densi
ty at locations where the hydrodynamic theory would call for a shockwa
ve; i.e., a jump in density such as those typically seen at the end of
every queue. The complex side calculations required by classical meth
ods to keep track of shockwaves are thus eliminated. The paper also sh
ows how the equations can mimic the real-life development of stop-and-
go traffic within moving queues.