A conserved higher-order anisotropic traffic flow model: Description of equilibrium and non-equilibrium flows

This paper takes into account three regimes for the description of traffic dynamics, which include the introduction of a pseudo-density transformed from the velocity, the pressure as a function of the pseudo-density and the relaxation of velocity to equilibrium. The resultant characteristic variables can be used to measure the deviation of the phase state to a desired state and derive physically bounded solutions. Taking the pseudo-density as a conserved variable, the approach is able to describe both equilibrium and non-equilibrium flows in a systematic and unified manner, and thus complex traffic phenomena. The theoretical properties of the model are thoroughly investigated, and numerical examples are used to demonstrate the ability of the model to reproduce some notable traffic phenomena. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.