Analytical Expressions of Incident-Induced Flow Dynamics Perturbations: Using Macroscopic Theory and Extension of Lighthill-Whitham Theory

Abstract

The impact of immobile traffic incidents on traffic flow dynamics is modeled using first-order macroscopic flow theory, in which an incident is characterized by dual severity, possibly extensive length, and duration. Incident-induced flow perturbation variations through space and time are then developed as are associated analytical expressions of shock waves, perturbation clearing time, and maximum queue length.