The Impact of Traffic Crashes on Urban Network Traffic Flow

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the impact of occasional traffic crashes on the urban traffic network flow. Toward this purpose, an extended model of coupled Nagel–Schreckenberg (NaSch) and Biham–Middleton–Levine (BML) models is presented. This extended model not only improves the initial conditions of the coupled models, but also gives the definition of traffic crashes and their spatial/time distribution. Further, we simulated the impact of the number of traffic crashes, their time distribution, and their spatial distribution on urban network traffic flow. This research contributes to the comprehensive understanding of the operational state of urban network traffic flow after traffic crashes, towards mastering the causes and propagation rules of traffic congestion. This work also a theoretical guidance value for the optimization of urban traffic network flow and the prevention and release of traffic crashes.