Cellular automaton simulation of muti-lane traffic flow including emergency vehicle

Abstract

Based on the analysis of urban road traffic flow affected by emergency vehicle, a muti-lane cellular automaton model is established. Three characteristic variables are introduced to modify the lane change rules, including the give-way state variable, the affected areas of police siren and the safe distance for mandatory lane change. Numerical simulation results indicate that lane number and hybrid vehicle scale factor have a great influence on vehicle speed and lane change number in low-density range. And the parameter setting for affected areas of police siren changes the lane change number within a certain range. Meanwhile, the parameter of safe distance for mandatory lane change mainly affects emergency vehicle speed and lane change number. The study indicates that the appearance of emergency vehicle interferences with traffic flow of lower density obviously, and the proposed parameters make cellular automaton model closer to the actual traffic scenarios under emergency conditions.