Winning strategies in congested traffic

TL;DR

This paper models one-directional two-lane traffic using a spring-block approach, analyzing how lane-changing strategies affect traffic flow and identifying conditions where lane changing offers advantages.

Contribution

It introduces a dynamical model for lane-changing behavior and reveals phase-transition-like behavior in traffic flow efficiency.

Findings

Lane-changing can significantly improve traffic advancement under certain conditions.

A phase transition in traffic flow efficiency depends on the fraction of lane-changing cars.

Optimal lane-changing strategies depend on traffic parameters and initial conditions.

Abstract

One-directional traffic on two-lanes is modeled in the framework of a spring-block type model. A fraction $q$ of the cars are allowed to change lanes, following simple dynamical rules, while the other cars keep their initial lane. The advance of cars, starting from equivalent positions and following the two driving strategies is studied and compared. As a function of the parameter $q$ the winning probability and the average gain in the advancement for the lane-changing strategy is computed. An interesting phase-transition like behavior is revealed and conclusions are drawn regarding the conditions when the lane changing strategy is the better option for the drivers.