Stability analysis of the mixed traffic flow of cars and trucks using heterogeneous optimal velocity car-following model

Real-world traffic flow usually contains a mixture of passenger vehicles (PV) and heavy vehicles (HV). In this paper, the four types of car–truck following combinations are considered: the car-following-car case, car-following-truck case, truck-following-car case and truck-following-truck case. The effect of different combinations on the stability of traffic flow is explored by converting the original Bando’s optimal velocity (OV) model to a heterogeneous form. A new linear stability analysis method that can derive the stability criterion of the heterogeneous traffic flow mixed by cars and trucks is introduced. Moreover, the effect of the proportions of the four car–truck following combinations on traffic flow is examined through the trajectory analysis. It concludes that the linear stability of the car–truck mixed traffic flow is determined more by the proportions of the different car–truck following scenarios, rather than the numbers of the cars and trucks. Moreover, cars and trucks can both stabilize and destabilize traffic flow depending on the density of the traffic flow and the parameters of the heterogeneous OV model.