Features of Traffic Congestion caused by bad Weather Conditions or Accident

Abstract

Spatiotemporal features and physics of vehicular traffic congestion occurring due to heavy freeway bottlenecks caused by bad weather conditions or accidents are found based on simulations in the framework of three-phase traffic theory. A model of a heavy bottleneck is presented. Under a continuous non-limited increase in bottleneck strength, i.e., when the average flow rate within a congested pattern allowed by the heavy bottleneck decreases continuously up to zero, the evolution of the traffic phases in congested traffic, synchronized flow and wide moving jams, is studied.