Traffic flow merging - Statistical and numerical modeling of microstructure

摘要

We present a detailed stochastic analysis of vehicle-by-vehicle data measured in the vicinity of a region where two traffic streams merge into one. We focus on statistical distributions of time headways as well as on their changes induced by a merging process. Accepting a well-proven hypothesis on GIG-distributed vehicular headways we propose, test and verify a thermodynamic particle-like traffic model with an implicit gap-acceptance rule controlling a process of merging. We show how a synchronization of merging streams affects a level of synchronization among vehicles within the merging region. (C) 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.