Jamming transition with fluctuations of characteristic acceleration/braking time within Lorentz model

Abstract

Jamming transition in traffic flow (between free and jammed traffic) for homogeneous car following model has been investigated taking into account fluctuations of characteristic acceleration/braking time. These fluctuations are defined by Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process. The behaviour of the most probable deviation of headway from its optimal value has been studied and phase diagram of the system has been calculated for supercritical and subcritical regimes of jam formation. It has been found that for the first regime the fluctuations of characteristic acceleration/braking time result in coexistence of free moving and jammed traffic, that is typical for the first-order phase transition, and in appearance of two steady states for the second mode. These states correspond to non-zero values of headway deviation at which the formation of jam and congested traffic are possible. Using phase-plain portraits method the kinetics of the system transitions has been analyzed for different domains of the phase diagram for both regimes.