An Improved Lattice Hydrodynamic Model by considering the Effect of “Backward-Looking” and Anticipation Behavior

Abstract

In order to prevent the occurrence of traffic accidents, drivers always focus on the running conditions of the preceding and rear vehicles to change their driving behavior. By taking into the “backward-looking” effect and the driver’s anticipation effect of flux difference consideration at the same time, a novel two-lane lattice hydrodynamic model is proposed to reveal driving characteristics. The corresponding stability conditions are derived through a linear stability analysis. Then, the nonlinear theory is also applied to derive the mKdV equation describing traffic congestion near the critical point. Linear and nonlinear analyses of the proposed model show that how the “backward-looking” effect and the driver’s anticipation behavior comprehensively affect the traffic flow stability. The results show that the positive constant γ, the driver’s anticipation time τ, and the sensitivity coefficient p play significant roles in the improvement of traffic flow stability and the alleviation of the traffic congestion. Furthermore, the effectiveness of linear stability analysis and nonlinear analysis results is demonstrated by numerical simulations.