Phase Transition in a Traffic Model with Passing

Abstract

We investigate a traffic model in which cars either move freely with quenched intrinsic velocities or belong to clusters formed behind slower cars. In each cluster, the next-to-leading car is allowed to pass and resume free motion. The model undergoes a phase transition from a disordered phase for the high passing rate to a jammed phase for the low rate. In the disordered phase, the cluster size distribution decays exponentially in the large size limit. In the jammed phase, the cluster size distribution has a power law tail and in addition there is an infinite-size cluster. Mean-field equations, describing the model in the framework of Maxwell approximation, correctly predict the existence of phase transition and adequately describe the disordered phase; properties of the jammed phase are studied numerically.

6 pages, 3 figures