A Boltzmann-Like Approach for Traffic Flow

I. Prigogine and F. C. Andrews
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I. Prigogine: The University Libre of Brussels, Brussels, Belgium
F. C. Andrews: The University of California, Berkeley, California

Operations Research, 1960, vol. 8, issue 6, 789-797

Abstract: The approach to the traffic-flow problem based on an integral differential equation of the Boltzmann type which has been considered by one of us (I P ) in a recent paper is further developed. The possibility of passing is explicitly introduced into the equation for the velocity distribution function. As in the previous paper, it is shown that at sufficiently high concentration a collective flow process must take place. In order to study more specifically the effects of one car on another, we define reduced n -car distribution functions giving the probability of finding a cluster of n cars all having the same velocity. We derive an equation for the evolution of this distribution function. Study of it yields some information as to the way traffic changes from relatively free flow to completely hindered, “condensed” flow.

Date: 1960
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