Dynamics of traffic flow affected by the future motion of multiple preceding vehicles under vehicle-connected environment: Modeling and stabilization

• Published in: Physica A Vol. 565; p. 125538
• Main Authors: Zhang, Jing, Xu, Keyu, Li, Guangyao, Li, Shubin, Wang, Tao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier B.V 01.03.2021
• Subjects: Connected vehicles; Phase transition; Stability analysis; Traffic flow; Connected vehicles; Stability analysis; Traffic flow; Phase transition
• ISSN: 0378-4371; 1873-2119
• DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2020.125538

Connected vehicles that communicate via vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) and vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication technologies have become a hot topic in the transportation control field. Benefit from these new technologies, this work constructs a modified intelligent microscopic model considering driver reaction to future motion of preceding vehicles. First, we mimic the impact of anticipative motion of multiple preceding vehicles on the traffic stream, developing a new model, which is further investigated by applying the linear and nonlinear analytical methods. Also, the corresponding neutral and coexisting stability conditions are determined. Analytical results indicate that the information about the future motion of multiple preceding vehicles can improve traffic stability significantly. Besides, the phase diagram is presented by plotting the neutral stability lines and coexisting curves; three zones are created by partitioning the phase diagram with the neutral line and coexisting line, namely, the unsteady zone under the coexisting line, the stable zone above the neutral line, and the metastable zone between the two lines. Finally, the emulation experiments are conducted to validate the analytical conclusions. The results show that the information on a changing trend of multiple headways obviously smooths the traffic flow and restrains the formation of traffic jams.