https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2009-00092-8
A power law for the duration of high-flow states and its interpretation from a heterogeneous traffic flow perspective
1
ETH Zurich, UNO D11, Universitätstr. 41, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
2
II. Institut für Theoretische Physik, Pfaffenwaldring 57, 70550 Stuttgart, Germany
Corresponding author: a dhelbing@ethz.ch
Received:
19
June
2008
Revised:
17
December
2008
Published online:
14
March
2009
We study the duration of “high-flow states” in freeway traffic, defined as the time periods for which traffic flows exceed a given flow threshold. Our empirical data are surprisingly well represented by a power law. Moreover, the power law exponent for a two-lane freeway seems to be independent of the chosen flow threshold. In order to interpret this discovery, we investigate a simple theoretical model of heterogeneous traffic with overtaking maneuvers, which is able to reproduce both, the empirical power law and its exponent.
PACS: 89.40.Bb – Land transportation / 89.75.Kd – Patterns / 51.10.+y – Kinetic and transport theory of gases
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 2009
