Cellular automata for traffic flow simulation with safety embedded notions

TL;DR

This paper introduces a cellular automata model for one-lane traffic flow that incorporates safety considerations, capturing realistic driver reactions and reproducing observed traffic states such as free-flow, synchronized, and stop-and-go conditions.

Contribution

A novel CA model with safety-aware rules that better emulate real driver behavior and traffic flow dynamics on highways.

Findings

Successfully reproduces three real traffic states.

Enhances CA models with safety considerations.

Aligns simulation results with observed traffic patterns.

Abstract

In this paper a cellular automata model for one-lane traffic flow is presented. A new set of rules is proposed to better capture driver reactions to traffic that are intended to preserve safety on the highway. As a result, drivers behavior is derived from an analysis that determines the most appropriate action for a vehicle based on the distance from the vehicle ahead of it and the velocities of the two neighbor vehicles. The model preserves simplicity of CA rules and at the same time makes the results closer to real highway behavior. Simulation results exhibit the three states observed in real traffic flow: Free-flow states, synchronized states, and stop-and-go states.