Metastable states in cellular automata for traffic flow
Robert Barlović, Ludger Santen, Andreas Schadschneider, Michael Schreckenberg · 1998
Abstract. Measurements on real traffic have revealed the existence of metastable states with very high flow. Such states have not been observed in the Nagel-Schreckenberg (NaSch) model which is the basic cellular automaton for the description of traffic. Here we propose a simple generalization of the NaSch model by introducing a velocity-dependent randomization. We investigate a special case which belongs to the so-called slow-to-start rules. It is shown that this model exhibits metastable states, thus sheding some light on the prerequisites for the occurance of hysteresis effects in the flow-density relation. PACS. 02.50.Ey Stochastic Processes – 05.60.+w Transport processes: theory – 89.40.+k Transportation 1