Reconstruction of dynamical equations for traffic flow

Abstract

Traffic flow data collected by an induction loop detector on the highway close to Koeln-Nord are investigated with respect to their dynamics including the stochastic content. In particular we present a new method, with which the flow dynamics can be extracted directly from the measured data. As a result a Langevin equation for the traffic flow is obtained. From the deterministic part of the flow dynamics, stable fixed points are extracted and set into relation with common features of the fundamental diagram.