IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/inm/oropre/v3y1955i2p176-186.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mathematical Models for Freely-Flowing Highway Traffic

Author

Listed:
  • G. F. Newell

    (Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island)

Abstract

An attempt is made to construct models for the motion of cars on a highway in a manner analogous to the way one treats the motion of molecules in a gas as described by the kinetic theory of gases. In particular the comparison is made between a traffic flow at very low volumes and the motion in a rarefied gas. From this, we are led to expect that even a very crude model of the interaction between individual cars will give a quite reasonable description of the collective behavior of large groups of cars. Some simple estimates of the dependence of average velocity on density and distribution of cars in various lanes of a multilane highway based upon very crude models seem to confirm this expectation. Operations Research , ISSN 0030-364X, was published as Journal of the Operations Research Society of America from 1952 to 1955 under ISSN 0096-3984.

Suggested Citation

  • G. F. Newell, 1955. "Mathematical Models for Freely-Flowing Highway Traffic," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 3(2), pages 176-186, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:3:y:1955:i:2:p:176-186
    DOI: 10.1287/opre.3.2.176
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/opre.3.2.176
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1287/opre.3.2.176?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michael Z. F. Li, 2008. "A Generic Characterization of Equilibrium Speed-Flow Curves," Transportation Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(2), pages 220-235, May.
    2. Daganzo, Carlos F., 1999. "A Behavioral Theory of Multi-Lane Traffic Flow Part I: Long Homogeneous Freeway Sections," Institute of Transportation Studies, Research Reports, Working Papers, Proceedings qt8n96n91w, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Berkeley.
    3. G. F. Newell, 2002. "Memoirs on Highway Traffic Flow Theory in the 1950s," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 50(1), pages 173-178, February.
    4. Daganzo, Carlos F., 2002. "A behavioral theory of multi-lane traffic flow. Part I: Long homogeneous freeway sections," Transportation Research Part B: Methodological, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 131-158, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:3:y:1955:i:2:p:176-186. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Asher (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/inforea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.