Understanding Stop-and-go Traffic in View of Asymmetric Traffic Theory

摘要

Stop-and-go traffic is a frequently observed phenomenon in congested highway traffic, but it has not been accurately modeled in existing traffic models. Car-following models based on kinematic flow theory cannot model stop-and-go traffic. Other approach assumed traffic states deviating from the equilibrium curve in the fundamental diagram, and the transitions between them, but no explanation was provided on the reason for the existence of different states. There is a need to understand the mechanism of stop-and-go traffic in terms of generation, propagation and dissipation in order to accurately model traffic dynamics. We propose an asymmetric traffic theory and explain the stop-and-go traffic phenomenon in light of the developed theory. The proposed theory is verified using individual vehicle trajectories from two freeway sites in California, US, collected as part of the Next Generation Simulation (NGSIM) project.