Non-lane-based lattice hydrodynamic model of traffic flow considering the lateral effects of the lane width

A new non-lane-based lattice model is proposed by incorporating the lateral separation effects of the lane width in traffic flow. The stability condition of the extended model is obtained by using the linear stability theory. The modified KdV equation near the critical point is derived to describe the phase transition of traffic flow and to estimate the evolution of traffic congestion through nonlinear analysis. Numerical simulation also shows that the incorporation of the lane width effects in lattice model can stabilize traffic flow and suppress the traffic jam, which implies that the lateral separation effects have important impacts in lattice models. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.