https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-024-05334-5
Regular Article
Impact of visibility on car-following considering traffic jerk in adverse weather conditions
Department of Mathematics, Maharshi Dayanand University, 124001, Rohtak, Haryana, India
a
sunita.rs.maths@mdurohtak.ac.in
Received:
8
April
2024
Accepted:
2
June
2024
Published online:
25
June
2024
Adverse weather conditions significantly influence traffic flow dynamics, posing challenges for safe and efficient transportation systems. This study proposes a novel car-following model to explore the effects of visibility on car-following behavior and traffic jerk, which are crucial factors that affect road safety during adverse weather. The proposed model integrates visibility-dependent parameters into a car-following model to capture the nuanced adjustments made by drivers in low visibility conditions. Through headway-sensitivity phase analysis, it is observed that the stable region within the traffic flow expands as visibility decreases and traffic jerk significantly enlarges the unstable region on phase diagrams. Additionally, nonlinear analysis reveals the emergence of kink–antikink soliton solutions of the mKdV equation, which is attributed to visibility effects and traffic jerk and interaction between these soliton solutions leads to complex patterns of congestion and flow within the traffic system. Numerical simulations validate the theoretical findings, emphasizing the crucial role of visibility and the jerk parameter in stabilizing traffic flow and improving road safety. The findings highlight the critical role of visibility in shaping driver behavior and the occurrence of traffic jerks to develop effective measures for mitigating the adverse effects of reduced visibility on traffic flow dynamics.
Copyright comment Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2024. Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
