Mathematical Theories of Traffic Flow

Creating Traffic Models is a challenging task because some of their interactions and system components are difficult to adequately express in a mathematical form. Traffic Flow Theory: Characteristics, Experimental Methods, and Numerical Techniques provide traffic engineers with the necessary methods and techniques for mathematically representing traffic flow. The book begins with a rigorous but easy to understand exposition of traffic flow characteristics including Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and traffic sensing technologies. Includes worked out examples and cases to illustrate concepts, models, and theories Provides modeling and analytical procedures for supporting different aspects of traffic analyses for supporting different flow models Carefully explains the dynamics of traffic flow over time and space

This book describes a coherent approach to the explanation of the movement of individual vehicles or groups of vehicles. To avoid possible misunderstandings, some preliminary remarks are called for. 1. This is intended to be a textbook. It brings together methods and approaches that are widely distributed throughout the literature and that are therefore difficult to assess. Text citations of sources have been avoided; literature references are listed together at the end of the book. 2. The book is intended primarily for students of engineering. It describes the theoretical background necessary for an understanding of the methods by which links in a road network are designed and dimensioned or by which traffic is controlled; the methods themselves are not dealt with. It may also assist those actually working in such sectors to interpret the results of traffic flow measure ments more accurately than has hitherto been the case. 3. The book deals with traffic flow on links between nodes, and not at nodes themselves. Many readers will probably regret this, since nodes are usually the bottlenecks which limit the capacity of the road network. A book dedicated to the node would be the obvious follow-up. A separation of link and node is justified, however, partly because the quantity of material has to be kept within reasonable bounds and partly because the treatment of traffic flow at nodes requires additional mathematical techniques (in particular, those relating to queueing theory).

This text provides a comprehensive and concise treatment of the topic of traffic flow theory and includes several topics relevant to today’s highway transportation system. It provides the fundamental principles of traffic flow theory as well as applications of those principles for evaluating specific types of facilities (freeways, intersections, etc.). Newer concepts of Intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and their potential impact on traffic flow are discussed. State-of-the-art in traffic flow research and microscopic traffic analysis and traffic simulation have significantly advanced and are also discussed in this text. Real world examples and useful problem sets complement each chapter. This textbook is meant for use in advanced undergraduate/graduate level courses in traffic flow theory with prerequisites including two semesters of calculus, statistics, and an introductory course in transportation. The text would also be of interest to transportation professionals as a refresher in traffic flow theory, or as a reference. Students and engineers of diverse backgrounds will find this text accessible and applicable to today’s traffic issues.

The purpose of this four volume series is to make available for college teachers and students samples of important and realistic applications of mathematics which can be covered in undergraduate programs. The goal is to provide illustrations of how modem mathematics is actually employed to solve relevant contemporary problems. Although these independent chapters were prepared primarily for teachers in the general mathematical sciences, they should prove valuable to students, teachers, and research scientists in many of the fields of application as well. Prerequisites for each chapter and suggestions for the teacher are provided. Several of these chapters have been tested in a variety of classroom settings, and all have undergone extensive peer review and revision. Illustrations and exercises are included in most chapters. Some units can be covered in one class, whereas others provide sufficient material for a few weeks of class time. Volume 1 contains 23 chapters and deals with differential equations and, in the last four chapters, problems leading to partial differential equations. Applications are taken from medicine, biology, traffic systems and several other fields. The 14 chapters in Volume 2 are devoted mostly to problems arising in political science, but they also address questions appearing in sociology and ecology. Topics covered include voting systems, weighted voting, proportional representation, coalitional values, and committees. The 14 chapters in Volume 3 emphasize discrete mathematical methods such as those which arise in graph theory, combinatorics, and networks.