Abstract
Based on a study of probe vehicle data we have revealed empirical F→S→F transitions before traffic breakdown at the bottleneck theoretically predicted by Kerner. Anonymized probe data from connected vehicles of a large fleet have been collected. The frequency of connected vehicles in our study has been more than ten times larger (on average about 10 s between probe vehicles) than in earlier studies. This data shows that disturbances in free flow evolve in a neighbourhood of the bottleneck leading to small regions of synchronized flow (F→S transition). These regions of synchronized flow dissolve after a random amount of time (traffic recovers to free flow (S→F transition)) before the traffic breakdown occurs. In contrast with the F→S→F transitions, traffic breakdown leads to a long-living congested traffic pattern propagating upstream of the bottleneck. The empirical findings of this paper support some of the theoretical features of the S→F instability.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsReferences
Banks, J.H.: Flow processes at a freeway bottleneck. Transp. Res. Rec. 1297, 20–28 (1990)
Chandler, R.E., Herman, R., Montroll, E.W.: Traffic dynamics: studies in car following. Oper. Res. 6(2), 165–184 (1958)
Elefteriadou, L.: An Introduction to Traffic Flow Theory, vol. 84. Springer, New York (2014)
Elefteriadou, L., Roess, R.P., McShane, W.R.: Probabilistic nature of breakdown at freeway merge junctions. Transp. Res. Rec. 1484, 80–89 (1995)
Elefteriadou, L., Kondyli, A., Brilon, W., Hall, F.L., Persaud, B., Washburn, S.: Enhancing ramp metering algorithms with the use of probability of breakdown models. J. Transp. Eng. 140(4), 04014003 (2014)
Gartner, N.H., Messer, C.J., Rathi, A.K.: Traffic Flow Theory: A State of the Art Report - Revised Monograph on Traffic Flow Theory. Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C. (2001)
Gazis, D.C., Herman, R., Potts, R.B.: Car-following theory of steady-state traffic flow. Oper. Res. 7(4), 499–505 (1959)
Gazis, D.C., Herman, R., Rothery, R.W.: Nonlinear follow-the-leader models of traffic flow. Oper. Res. 9(4), 545–567 (1961)
Hall, F.L., Agyemang-Duah, K.: Freeway capacity drop and the definition of capacity. Transp. Res. Rec. 1320, 91–98 (1991)
Herman, R., Montroll, E.W., Potts, R.B., Rothery, R.W.: Traffic dynamics: analysis of stability in car following. Oper. Res. 7(1), 86–106 (1959)
Kerner, B.S.: The Physics of Traffic. Springer, Berlin (2004)
Kerner, B.S.: Introduction to Modern Traffic Flow Theory and Control: The Long Road to Three-phase Traffic Theory. Springer Science & Business Media, Berlin (2009)
Kerner, B.S.: Microscopic theory of traffic-flow instability governing traffic breakdown at highway bottlenecks: growing wave of increase in speed in synchronized flow. Phys. Rev. E 92(6), 062827 (2015)
Kerner, B.S.: Breakdown in Traffic Networks: Fundamentals of Transportation Science. Springer, Berlin (2017)
Kerner, B.S., Rehborn, H., Schäfer, R.P., Klenov, S.L., Palmer, J., Lorkowski, S., Witte, N.: Traffic dynamics in empirical probe vehicle data studied with three-phase theory: spatiotemporal reconstruction of traffic phases and generation of jam warning messages. Physica A 392(1), 221–251 (2013)
Molzahn, S.E., Kerner, B.S., Rehborn, H., Klenov, S.L., Koller, M.: Analysis of speed disturbances in empirical single vehicle probe data before traffic breakdown. IET Intell. Transp. Syst. 11, 604–612 (2017). http://digital-library.theiet.org/content/journals/10.1049/iet-its.2016.0315
Next generation simulation programs. http://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/trafficanalysistools/ngsim.htm. Accessed 25 Sept 2016
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Molzahn, SE., Kerner, B.S., Rehborn, H., Klenov, S.L., Koller, M. (2019). F → S → F Transitions in Vehicle Probe Data. In: Hamdar, S. (eds) Traffic and Granular Flow '17. TGF 2017. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11440-4_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11440-4_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-11439-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-11440-4
eBook Packages: Mathematics and StatisticsMathematics and Statistics (R0)