A new lattice model of traffic flow with the anticipation effect of potential lane changing

A new lattice model of traffic flow is presented by taking into account the anticipation of potential lane changing on front site on single lane. The stability condition of the extended model is obtained by using the linear stability theory. The modified KdV equation near the critical point is constructed and solved through nonlinear analysis. And the phase space of traffic flow in the density-sensitivity space could be divided into three regions: stable, metastable and unstable ones, respectively. Numerical simulation also shows that the consideration of lane changing probability in lattice model can stabilize traffic flow, which implies that the new consideration has an important effect on traffic flow in lattice models. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.