Eur. Phys. J. B 25, 245-251 (2002)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e20020028

Self-similarity in highway traffic

¹ Physics Department of Bologna University and Istituto Nazionale per la Fisica della Materia viale Berti-Pichat 6/2 40127 Bologna, Italy
² Physics Department of Bologna University and Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare viale Berti-Pichat 6/2 40127 Bologna, Italy

Corresponding author: ^a campari@df.unibo.it

Received: 23 April 2001
Revised: 28 September 2001
Published online: 15 January 2002

Abstract

Highway traffic as simulated with a simple cellular automata model has been analysed in a search for self-similarity in the behaviour of car density and car flow as a function of space. Fractal dimensions between 1.5 and 1.6, depending on the simulation characteristics, have been measured with a box counting algorithm. The self-similarity spans over about 2 orders of magnitude. A comparison with experimental data is suggested.