A phase transition induced by traffic lights on a single lane road

CHACOMA, A.; ABRAMSON, G.; KUPERMAN, M.N.

PHYSICA A - STATISTICAL AND THEORETICAL PHYSICS

ELSEVIER SCIENCE BV

Año: 2021 vol. 568

0378-4371

In this work, we study the effect of a traffic light system on the flow of a single laneroad by proposing a traffic model based on a cellular automaton that also includesbehavioral considerations. We focus on the macroscopic characterization of the systemby studying the changes in vehicle density and the occurrence of jams. In this context,we observe and characterize a phase transition between the free flow and jammedstates. This transition is induced by the instabilities originated by the vehicles stoppingat the traffic lights. Moreover, we analyze the effect of these instabilities on the criticaldensity of vehicles at which the transition occurs as a function of two parameters: (i)the in-flow of cars, (ii) the drivers? behavior. For the latter we observe that the trafficlight perturbations feedback on the drivers? behavior can lead the system to differentscenarios, which are also analyzed.