Dissolution of traffic jam via additional local interactions

Abstract

We use a cellular automata approach to numerically investigate traffic flow patterns on a single lane. The free-flow phase (F), the synchronized phase (S), and the jam phase (J) are observed and the transitions among them are studied as the vehicular density $ρ$ is slowly varied. If $ρ$ is decreased from well inside the J phase, the flux $Φ$ follows the lower branch of the hysteresis loop, implying that the adiabatic decrease of $ρ$ is not an efficient way to put the system back into S or F phases. We propose a simple way to help the system to escape out of J phase, which is based on the local information of the velocities of downstream vehicles.

7 pages in two columns, 5 figures