Simulation of multilane freeway traffic with detailed rules deduced from microscopic driving behavior

A simulation to model traffic on a multilane freeway is introduced starting from microscopic driving rules. The model takes each individual car into a ccount with its individual features and actual situations, so that a distri bution of parameters as well as different behaviors can easily be analyzed. Therefore, a detailed study of certain situations, driving tactics, vehicl e properties, and their influence on the global traffic how can be performe d. The model is discussed, as are first results such as the influence of dr iver behavior on the fundamental diagram and, in addition, the dynamics of microscopic, individual quantities like separation and difference in speed between successive cars. It turns out that a hysteresis in the reaction of the driver for speeding up and slowing down plays an important role, and ef fects macroscopic quantities like the shape of the fundamental diagram, e.g ., the metastable behavior around the maximum flow and on the speed of obse rved jams running backward. Furthermore, microscopic time resolved characte ristics are strongly influenced, e.g., oscillations in the distance and rel ative speed between successive cars.