Stabilization and enhancement of traffic flow by the next-nearest-neighborinteraction

The car-following model of traffic is extended to take into account the car interaction before the next car ahead (the next-nearest-neighbor interacti on). The traffic behavior of the extended car-following model is investigat ed numerically and analytically. It is shown that the next-nearest-neighbor interaction stabilizes the traffic flow. The jamming transition between th e freely moving and jammed phases occurs at a higher density than the thres hold of the original car-following model. By increasing the maximal velocit y, the traffic current is enhanced without jam by the stabilization effect. The jamming transition is analyzed with the use of the linear stability an d nonlinear perturbation methods. The traffic jam is described by the kink solution of the modified Korteweg-de Vries equation. The theoretical coexis ting curve is in good agreement with the simulation result. [S1063-651X(99) 01512-3].