A macro traffic flow model with headway variation tendency and bounded rationality

Abstract

The rapid adoption of sensor technology has upgraded the vehicular communication capacity, which enables the drivers to predict the traffic state (e.g. headway variation tendency (HVT)) based on the current traffic information. Meanwhile, in practice, the drivers would exhibit bounded rationality behavior in that they often perceive and respond to acceleration/deceleration only when the headway variation exceeds a certain threshold. The collective effect may greatly affect the driving behavior and traffic flow performance. In this study, we innovatively model the traffic flow macroscopically considering HVT and bounded rationality effect in the context of continuum model. Based on the linear stability theory, the stability condition of the above model is obtained. The KdV-Burgers equation of the model is derived to describe traffic jam propagation mechanism near the neutral stability line by applying the reductive perturbation method in nonlinear stability analysis. Results show that the HVT and bounded rationality behavior have a great impact on the traffic congestion and energy consumption.