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Main Authors: Huang, Suzhou, Hu, Jian
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.09466
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author Huang, Suzhou
Hu, Jian
author_facet Huang, Suzhou
Hu, Jian
contents We consider a discrete-time dynamical system in a car-following context. The system was recently introduced to parsimoniously model human driving behavior based on utility maximization. The parameters of the model were calibrated using vehicle trajectory data from the Sugiyama experiment. It was shown that such a system can accurately reproduce the observed collective phenomena of a more elaborate experiment by Tadaki et al. Once the heterogeneity and noise are switched off, the model defines a map of the corresponding discrete-time dynamical system. We first perform a bifurcation analysis of the map by studying the stability of its limit solutions: a free-flow fixed point and a stop-and-go quasi-periodic orbit. When the vehicle density is varied, our model displays a bifurcation diagram qualitatively similar to those found in a class of optimal velocity models based on an ordinary differential equation approach, including regimes where one or both of the limit solutions are stable. In a 2D bifurcation diagram we further demonstrate that imposing a vehicle density-dependent speed advisory can dissipate the stop-and-go quasi-periodic orbit. This in turn lays the mathematical foundation for a simple, yet effective proposal [1] to tame stop-and-go waves, improving traffic flow and smoothness simultaneously via variable speed advisory.
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publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Taming Spontaneous Stop-and-Go Traffic Waves: A Bifurcation Perspective of A Dynamical Map
Huang, Suzhou
Hu, Jian
Systems and Control
We consider a discrete-time dynamical system in a car-following context. The system was recently introduced to parsimoniously model human driving behavior based on utility maximization. The parameters of the model were calibrated using vehicle trajectory data from the Sugiyama experiment. It was shown that such a system can accurately reproduce the observed collective phenomena of a more elaborate experiment by Tadaki et al. Once the heterogeneity and noise are switched off, the model defines a map of the corresponding discrete-time dynamical system. We first perform a bifurcation analysis of the map by studying the stability of its limit solutions: a free-flow fixed point and a stop-and-go quasi-periodic orbit. When the vehicle density is varied, our model displays a bifurcation diagram qualitatively similar to those found in a class of optimal velocity models based on an ordinary differential equation approach, including regimes where one or both of the limit solutions are stable. In a 2D bifurcation diagram we further demonstrate that imposing a vehicle density-dependent speed advisory can dissipate the stop-and-go quasi-periodic orbit. This in turn lays the mathematical foundation for a simple, yet effective proposal [1] to tame stop-and-go waves, improving traffic flow and smoothness simultaneously via variable speed advisory.
title Taming Spontaneous Stop-and-Go Traffic Waves: A Bifurcation Perspective of A Dynamical Map
topic Systems and Control
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.09466