Distributions of Time-and Distance-headways in the Nagel-schreckenberg Model of Vehicular Traffic: Effects of Hindrances

In the Nagel-Schreckenberg model of vehicular traffic on single-lane highways vehicles are modelled as particles which hop forward from one site to another on a one dimensional lattice and the inter-particle interactions mimic the manner in which the real vehicles influence each other’s motion. In this model the number of empty lattice sites in front of a particle is taken to be a measure of the corresponding distance-headway(DH). The time-headway(TH) is defined as the time interval between the departures (or arrivals) of two successive particles recorded by a detector placed at a fixed position on the model highway. We investigate the effects of spatial inhomogeneities of the highway (static hindrances) on the DH and TH distributions in the steady-state of this model. PACS. 05.40.+j Fluctuation phenomena, random processes, and Brownian motion. PACS. 05.60.+w Transport processes: theory. PACS. 89.40.+k Transportation. —————————————————————————————– To whom all correspondence should be addressed; E-mail: [email protected]