Modeling random traffic accidents by conservation laws

Abstract

We introduce a stochastic traffic flow model to describe random traffic accidents on a single road. The model is a piecewise deterministic process incorporating traffic accidents and is based on a scalar conservation law with space-dependent flux function. Using a Lax-Friedrichs discretization, we show that the total variation is bounded in finite time and provide a theoretical framework to embed the stochastic process. Additionally, a solution algorithm is introduced to also investigate the model numerically.

Keywords

• conservation laws
• traffic flow
• random accidents
• piecewise deterministic processes