A cellular automaton model based on empirical observations of a driver’s oscillation behavior reproducing the findings from Kerner’s three-phase traffic theory

In this paper, we propose a new cellular automaton model based on the well known three-phase traffic theory. The model takes into account the mechanism of a driver’s oscillation behavior obtained from engineering experiments in real traffic conditions. This mechanism shows the inner competition between speed adaptation and distance adjustment effects. The speed adaptation effect leads to synchronized flow, whereas a pinch region emerges, associated with the spontaneous occurrence of wide moving jams, due to distance over-adjustment. Numerical simulations are carried out both with periodic and with open boundary conditions in order to investigate the spatiotemporal features of traffic flow. The results indicate that our model is able to reproduce the three distinct traffic phases and exhibit the four congested patterns upstream of an isolated on-ramp, which is in good consistency with the results predicted from the three-phase theory.