Cellular Automata Approach for Modeling Lane Changing Execution
Hui-Xuan Li, Chun-Fu Shao, Hao-Ling Wu, Jun-Fang Tian and Ying-Da Zhang
In this paper, the execution process of lane changing is considered in two-lane cellular automata models for traffic flow with homogeneous and heterogeneous composition. A set of assumptions have been proposed to normalize the execution of lane-changing. Both the execution process and slow-to-start rule are taken into account, and comparisons are made among basic STCA model, STCA-sts (combined with the slow-to-start rule) model and the new model (STCA-E). The simulation results show (i) STCA-E model is consistent with driver’s lane changing motivation that the driver is always keeping the speed not lower than the current value; (ii) a two-dimension plane is found in the lane changing frequency-density figure, which may provide proof to three-phase traffic theory; (iii) along with increasing of slow trucks, more vehicles will make lane changing for a better traffic condition, and the 2D plane will become narrower.
Keywords: Cellular automata; traffic flow; three-phase traffic theory; lane changing execution; slow-to-start; lane changing frequency