The Effect of Arbitrary Stopping of Public Vehicles on Flow of Traffic In One–Line Streets

Abstract

Cellular automaton method was used to simulate the flow of cars in typical streets in Indonesia. In this streets, arbitrary stopping of vehicles at anytime along the streets might happen and violating the traffic regulation by the drivers frequently occurs. This study was restricted to a one-line street passed by two types of vehicles: private car and public vehicles, and a car/vehicle cannot advance the preceding ones (car following model). Arbitrary stopping of public vehicles leads to occurrence of vehicle clustering along the line. The number of main clusters equals to the number of the public vehicles. The total distance traveled by all vehicles during iteration approximates a periodical function, with a period is equal to the stopping duration of the public vehicle. The power spectrum of this movement scales as f^-ɑ, with ɑ = 2 and seems to be universal. The distance traveled in unit volume of fuel consumption was also investigated and showed that this distance decreases monotonically when the ratio of public vehicle to the total number of vehicles increases. Key words: Cellular automata; traffic flow; public vehicle; one–line street; fuel consumption