Effect of Driver Behavior on Spatiotemporal Congested Traffic Patterns at Highway Bottlenecks in the Framework of Three-Phase Traffic Theory

Abstract

We present results of numerical simulations of the effect of driver behavior on spatiotemporal congested traffic patterns that result from traffic breakdown at an on-ramp bottleneck. The simulations are made with the Kerner-Klenov stochastic traffic flow model in the framework of three-phase traffic theory. Different diagrams of congested patterns at the bottleneck associated with different driver behavioral characteristics are found and compared each other. An adaptive cruise control (ACC) in the framework of three-phase traffic theory introduced by the author (called a "driver alike ACC" (DA-ACC)) is discussed. The effect of DA-ACC-vehicles on traffic flow, in which without the DA-ACC-vehicles traffic congestion occurs at the bottleneck, is numerically studied. We show that DA-ACC-vehicles improve traffic flow considerably without any reduction in driving comfort. It is found that there is a critical percentage of DA-ACC-vehicles in traffic flow: If the percentage of the DA-ACC-vehicle exceeds the critical one no traffic breakdown occurs at the bottleneck. A criticism of a recent "criticism of three-phase traffic theory" is presented

30 pages, 15 figures

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