The characteristics of congested flow on a freeway across lanes, space, and time

For the most part, previous studies of freeway flow kinematics and dynamics (especially relating to schock wave propagation and to the fundamental diagram) have looked only at flow within a single lane. However, the perturbations in flow which make the dynamics interesting—and of practical importance—normally arise in multiple lane settings. This study examines flow-occupancy dynamics at the onset of congestion by taking into consideration the …