Kinetic Monte Carlo simulations of 1D and 2D traffic flows: Comparison of two look-ahead rules

We employ an efficient list-based kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) method to study traffic flow models on one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) lattices based on the exclusion principle and Arrhenius microscopic dynamics. This model implements stochastic rules for cars’ movement based on the configuration of the traffic ahead of each car. In particular, we compare two different lookahead rules: one is based on the distance from the car under consideration to the car in front of it, the other one is based on the density of cars ahead. The 1D numerical results of these two rules suggest different coarse-grained macroscopic limits in the form of integro-differential Burgers equations. The 2D results of both rules exhibit a sharp phase transition from freely flowing to fully jammed, as a function of initial density of cars. However, the look-ahead rule based on the density of the traffic produces more realistic results. The KMC simulations reported in this paper are compared with those from other well-known traffic flow models and the corresponding empirical results from real traffic.