Microscopic derivation of a traffic flow model with a bifurcation

Abstract

The goal of the paper is a rigorous derivation of a macroscopic traffic flow model with a bifurcation or a local perturbation from a microscopic one. The microscopic model is a simple follow-the-leader with random parameters. The random parameters are used as a statistical description of the road taken by a vehicle and its law of motion. The limit model is a deterministic and scalar Hamilton-Jacobi on a network with a flux limiter, the flux-limiter describing how much the bifurcation or the local perturbation slows down the vehicles. The proof of the existence of this flux limiter-the first one in the context of stochastic homogenization-relies on a concentration inequality and on a delicate derivation of a superadditive inequality.