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Emergent Traffic Jams

Kai Nagel·Maya Paczuski
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Abstract

We study a single-lane traffic model that is based on human driving behavior. The outflow from a traffic jam self-organizes to a critical state of maximum throughput. Small perturbations of the outflow far downstream create emergent traffic jams with a power law distribution $P(t) \sim t^{-3/2}$ of lifetimes, $t$. On varying the vehicle density in a closed system, this critical state separates lamellar and jammed regimes, and exhibits $1/f$ noise in the power spectrum. Using random walk arguments, in conjunction with a cascade equation, we develop a phenomenological theory that predicts the critical exponents for this transition and explains the self-organizing behavior. These predictions are consistent with all of our numerical results.

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Kai Nagel, Maya Paczuski. 1995-02-15. Emergent Traffic Jams. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.51.2909

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