Disorder effects in cellular automata for two-lane traffic

TL;DR

This paper investigates how slow cars affect platoon formation in two-lane traffic models, revealing that even few slow cars can cause platoons at low densities, with driver anticipation mitigating this effect.

Contribution

It introduces the impact of slow cars in two-lane traffic models and examines how lane-changing rules and driver anticipation influence platoon formation.

Findings

Slow cars induce platoons at low densities in two-lane models.

Anticipation of drivers reduces the impact of slow cars.

Robustness of platoon formation varies with lane-changing rules.

Abstract

For single-lane traffic models it is well known that particle disorder leads to platoon formation at low densities. Here we discuss the effect of slow cars in two-lane systems. Surprisingly, even a small number of slow cars can initiate the formation of platoons at low densities. The robustness of this phenomenon is investigated for different variants of the lane-changing rules as well as for different variants on the single-lane dynamics. It is shown that anticipation of drivers reduces the influence of slow cars drastically.