1998/04/16 by R. Barlovic, L. Santen, A. Schadschneider +1 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s100510050504
15 pages, 8 ps-figures included; accepted for publication in EPJ B
arxiv created 1998/04/16 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30
Measurements on real traffic have revealed the existence of metastable states with very high flow. Such states have not been observed in the Nagel-Schreckenberg (NaSch) model which is the basic cellular automaton for the description of traffic. Here we propose a simple generalization of the NaSch model by introducing a velocity-dependent randomization. We investigate a special case which belongs to the so-called slow-to-start rules. It is shown that this model exhibits metastable states, thus sheding some light on the prerequisites for the occurance of hysteresis effects in the flow-density relation.