Synchronized flow and phase separations in single-lane mixed traffic flow

D PR OO F Abstract In this paper, we have studied synchronized flow and phase separations in mixed (heterogeneous) single-lane highway traffic. It is found that the flux–density (occupancy) curve of heterogeneous flow, as expected, lies in between two flux–density (occupancy) curves of homogeneous flow R 1⁄4 0 (all vehicles are slow vehicles) and R 1⁄4 1 (all vehicles are fast vehicles). However, unexpectedly, the velocity–density (occupancy) curve of heterogeneous flow does not. We also found that cross-correlation function (CCF) analysis shows that heterogeneous flow has almost the same strong coupling as homogeneous flow. In other words, when traffic is in free flow or jams, the value of CCF is approximate to be 1.0, while the value is about 0.1 in synchronized flow. r 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.