Chain reaction of traffic breakdowns in coupled-cycle networks

Takashi Nagatani

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2022, vol. 587, issue C

Abstract: We present a dynamic model for major traffic jams in urban-scale networks. We investigate the traffic breakdown in the directed network consisted of cycle graphs when an intersection is closed to vehicles. We show how the traffic breakdown propagates from cycle graph to cycle graph. The deadlock (jam) of vehicles is induced by the closed intersection, a local breakdown occurs at an early stage, and the breakdown propagates toward the whole network. The macroscopic dynamic equations of vehicular densities are derived by using the speed-matching model. The densities and currents (flows) on all roads are obtained numerically. We show that the chain reaction of traffic breakdowns occurs when a density is higher than a critical value, while it does not propagate over the network at lower density than the critical value. The chain reaction of traffic breakdowns induces the major traffic jam. The jamming transition between free traffic and major traffic jam is found in the traffic network.

Keywords: Traffic dynamics; Major traffic jam; City network; Chain reaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378437121008220
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only. Journal offers the option of making the article available online on Science direct for a fee of $3,000

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:587:y:2022:i:c:s0378437121008220

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2021.126549

Access Statistics for this article

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications is currently edited by K. A. Dawson, J. O. Indekeu, H.E. Stanley and C. Tsallis

More articles in Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().