Cellular automaton approach to highway traffic: What do we know?

Abstract

Cellular automata for the simulation of highway traffic have become increasingly popular in recent years. But how realistic are these models? We review the current state of this approach, focussing on their ability to reproduce the macroscopic structure of traffic flow as well as the single-vehicle data obtained empirically. Furthermore the role of accidents is discussed. Although of general relevance for traffic modelling this aspect has not been attracted much attention so far. © 2009 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.