Objective description of heterogeneous traffic flow patterns of passenger cars and trucks on long downhill sections in Kerner's three-phase traffic theory framework

Abstract

Because of their substantial weight, trucks frequently brake to control their speed on long downhill sections, placing a significant load on the brakes. After traveling a certain distance, this leads to degradation of the brake performance and poses a considerable traffic safety hazard. This study analyzes the energy transformation of trucks on long downhill sections using the law of energy conservation, and derives the relationship between brake performance and travel distance. Within the framework of Kerner's three-phase traffic theory, the impact of brake performance degradation on traffic flow in long downhill sections was studied. This model is based on the well-known Kerner–Klenov–Schreckeneberg–Wolf (KKSW) cellular automaton (CA) model. By comparing the traffic flow under different traffic volume and truck percentage scenarios, it was found that the synchronized flow generated under certain traffic volume and truck proportion conditions has a particularly significant impact upstream. Based on the simulation results, a lane segregation strategy is proposed for certain traffic volumes and truck percentages.