Narrow Results

This paper extends a recently proposed single-lane cellular automaton model [Li et al., Phys. Rev. E64, 066128 (2001)], which considers the velocity effect of the preceding car, to two-lane traffic system. The traffic behaviors in both homogeneous system and inhomogeneous system are investigated. For homogeneous traffic, it is shown that the velocity effect enhances the maximum flux but does not change the qualitative properties of the fundamental diagram. Nevertheless, the qualitative changes of the lane changing frequency and congested pattern occur. In the inhomogeneous system, the honk effect is studied. It is found that the honk effect first strengthens then weakens with the increase of R, the ratio of slow cars to all cars.

An extended two-lane lattice model of traffic flow with consideration of the slope effect is proposed. The slope effect is reflected in both the maximal velocity and the relative current. The stability condition of the model is derived by applying the linear stability method. By using the nonlinear analysis method, we obtain the Korteweg–de Vries (KdV) equation near the neutral stability line and the modified Korteweg–de Vries (mKdV) equation near the critical point. The analytical and numerical results demonstrate that the stability of traffic flow is enhanced on the uphill but is weakened on the downhill when the slope angle increases.