An Analysis on Mixed Traffic Flow of Conventional Passenger Cars and Microcars Using a Cellular Automata Model

Characteristics of traffic with microcars in traffic flow are analysed by using a cellular automata simulation model. 400m of urban highway and arterial road segment both with two lanes are supposed respectively, including an intersection delay with a signal cycle in the middle of the latter. Two kinds of vehicles, conventional car and microcar are defined in the traffic stream. The changing lane behaviour which can make vehicles have more opportunity to higher their speed is considered. Traffic flow with different rates of microcars is investigated in the simulation. Traffic flow and average speed are computed for congestion point of view. The results demonstrate that introduction of microcar will relieve traffic congestion to some extent, and vehicles passing through per hour become more than those without microcars. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier B.V. Selection and/or peer review under responsibility of Beijing Jiaotong University [BJU], Systems Engineering Society of China (SESC)