Eur. Phys. J. B (2013) 86: 178
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2013-30511-0

Regular Article

Intelligent driving in traffic systems with partial lane discipline

¹ Max-Planck-Institute für Eisenforschung, 40237 Düsseldorf, Germany
² Tarbiat Modares University, Department of Materials Engineering, 14115 Tehran, Iran
³ Materials and Process Simulation, University of Bayreuth, 95448 Bayreuth, Germany

^a e-mail: h.assadi@hsu-hh.de

Received: 26 June 2012
Received in final form: 7 February 2013
Published online: 22 April 2013

Abstract

It is a most common notion in traffic theory that driving in lanes and keeping lane changes to a minimum leads to smooth and laminar traffic flow, and hence to increased traffic capacity. On the other hand, there exist persistent vehicular traffic systems that are characterised by habitual disregarding of lane markings, and partial or complete loss of laminar traffic flow. Here, we explore the stability of such systems through a microscopic traffic flow model, where the degree of lane-discipline is taken as a variable, represented by the fraction of drivers that disregard lane markings completely. The results show that lane-free traffic may win over completely ordered traffic at high densities, and that partially ordered traffic leads to the poorest overall flow, while not considering the crash probability. Partial order in a lane-free system is similar to partial disorder in a lane-disciplined system in that both lead to decreased traffic capacity. This could explain the reason why standard enforcement methods, which rely on continuous increase of order, often fail to incur order to lane-free traffic systems. The results also provide an insight into the cooperative phenomena in open systems with self-driven particles.