Vehicular traffic flow at a non-signalised intersection

TL;DR

This paper introduces a modified cellular automata model to simulate vehicular flow at a non-signalised intersection, revealing how yielding behavior influences traffic efficiency and flow regulation.

Contribution

It presents a novel adaptation of the Nagel-Schreckenberg model to non-signalised intersections, highlighting the impact of yielding on traffic flow dynamics.

Findings

Yielding improves total flow at low densities.

Interaction at the intersection acts as a dynamic impurity.

Flow regulation can surpass no perpendicular flow in certain densities.

Abstract

We have developed a modified Nagel-Schreckenberg cellular automata model for describing a conflicting vehicular traffic flow at the intersection of two streets. No traffic lights control the traffic flow. The approaching cars to the intersection yield to each other to avoid collision. Closed boundary condition is applied to the streets. Extensive Monte Carlo simulations is taken into account to find the model characteristics. In particular, we obtain the fundamental diagrams and show that the effect of interaction of two streets can be regarded as a dynamic impurity located at the intersection point. Our results suggest that yielding mechanism gives rise to a high total flow throughout the intersection especially in the low density regime. In some ranges of densities, yielding mechanism even improves and regulates the flow in comparison to the absence of perpendicular flow.