Features of Traffic Congestion caused by bad Weather Conditions or Accident

TL;DR

This paper investigates the spatiotemporal characteristics and physics of traffic congestion caused by bad weather or accidents, using simulations within three-phase traffic theory to understand congestion dynamics and phase evolution.

Contribution

It introduces a model of heavy bottlenecks and analyzes the evolution of traffic phases under increasing bottleneck strength in a three-phase traffic framework.

Findings

Traffic phases evolve from synchronized flow to wide moving jams as bottleneck strength increases.

Heavy bottlenecks can cause a continuous decrease in flow rate, leading to complete congestion.

Simulation results align with observed traffic congestion patterns during adverse conditions.

Abstract

Spatiotemporal features and physics of vehicular traffic congestion occurring due to heavy freeway bottlenecks caused by bad weather conditions or accidents are found based on simulations in the framework of three-phase traffic theory. A model of a heavy bottleneck is presented. Under a continuous non-limited increase in bottleneck strength, i.e., when the average flow rate within a congested pattern allowed by the heavy bottleneck decreases continuously up to zero, the evolution of the traffic phases in congested traffic, synchronized flow and wide moving jams, is studied.