Intermittent unstable structures induced by incessant constant disturbances in the full velocity difference car-following model

In this paper, we study traffic flow patterns induced by incessant constant disturbances in the full velocity difference car-following model. It is found that intermittent unstable structures may occur in the convectively unstable traffic flow under certain situations. A phenomenological explanation of the phenomenon is given: the incessant constant disturbances mainly function to maintain the stationary oscillating, structure while the stationary oscillating structure is not always stable, the intermittent instability of it leads to the intermittent unstable Structures. The similarity of the stationary oscillating structure to the transition layer in the local cluster effect is pointed out. The dependence of the phenomenon on the headway of the initially uniform traffic, the safety distance x., the sensitivity parameters K and X, and the noise term is also investigated. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.