Moment methods for kinetic traffic flow and a class of macroscopic traffic models

Abstract

Starting from a nonlocal version of a classical kinetic traffic model, we derive a class of second-order macroscopic traffic flow models using appropriate moment closure approaches. Under mild assumptions on the closure, we prove that the resulting macroscopic equations fulfill a set of conditions including hyperbolicity, physically reasonable invariant domains and physically reasonable bounds on the speed with which the waves propagate. Finally, numerical results for various situations are presented, illustrating the analytical findings and comparing kinetic and macroscopic solutions.