Fundamentals of Traffic Flow

TL;DR

This paper presents new empirical findings on how vehicle density affects velocity distribution and fluctuations, and uses these to define fundamental traffic flow relations, comparing them with existing theories.

Contribution

It provides novel empirical data on traffic flow characteristics and refines fundamental relations, enhancing understanding of traffic dynamics.

Findings

Density influences velocity distribution and moments

Temporal fluctuations of velocity are characterized

Fundamental traffic relations are specified and compared

Abstract

From single vehicle data a number of new empirical results concerning the density-dependence of the velocity distribution and its moments as well as the characteristics of their temporal fluctuations have been determined. These are utilized for the specification of some fundamental relations of traffic flow and compared with existing traffic theories.