A novel cellular automaton model for traffic freeway simulation

Abstract

This work introduces a novel Cellular Automata (CA) model applied for freeway traffic. Besides its capacity for representing basic traffic proprieties, it is capable of representing different drivers behaviors as well as its fluctuation and variation, based on the combination of acceleration and anticipation policy. Both policies are based on normal probabilistic function which represents the nature of unpredictable human behavior. The simulations developed and described herein give rise to a phase diagram which resembles and enriches the fundamental diagram, in its theoretical as well as for real data. Therefore, novel feature proposed herein is normal probabilistic function invoked in both policy (acceleration and anticipation), which allows for a simple group of rules with a few parameters. © 2012 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.