CAUSES AND EFFECTS OF PHASE TRANSITIONS IN HIGHWAY TRAFFIC

Carlos F. Daganzo, Michael J. Cassidy and Robert L. Bertini

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and
Institute of Transportation Studies
University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA

ABSTRACT

It is shown that all the phase transitions in and out of freely flowing traffic reported earlier for a German site could be caused by bottlenecks, as are all the transitions observed at two other sites examined here. Furthermore, all the evidence indicates that bottlenecks cause these transitions in a predictable way, and no evidence is found that stoppages (jams) appear spontaneously in free flow traffic for no apparent reason. The most salient phenomena observed at all locations are explained in terms of a simple theory specific to traffic.

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Last update 1/1/98