Eur. Phys. J. B 43, 565-572 (2005)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2005-00091-9

Controlling traffic jams by a feedback signal

School of Traffic and Transportation, Beijing Jiaotong University, 100044 Beijing, P.R. China

Corresponding author: ^a xmzhao_cn@hotmail.com

Received: 17 September 2004
Revised: 19 October 2004
Published online: 30 March 2005

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to control the vehicle system to move orderly by a feedback signal in the optimal velocity (OV) model under open boundary. Following the description of the OV model and its stability analysis, some problems about the definition of traffic jams in [12] are presented and illustrated by an example. Based on our analysis, a feedback signal acting on the traffic system has been introduced into the OV model. The signal will act in the system only if the state is inhomogeneous, and it will vanish in the homogeneous traffic flow. Theoretically, it is proved that the disorder state in traffic system could be suppressed by using the control method. Two kinds of noises are tested in our computer simulations. The simulation results demonstrate that the traffic system can move into a homogeneous phase by the control.