2005/07/15 by Sven Maerivoet, Bart De Moor, Maerivoet, Sven +1
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · Social Sciences · #FOS: Physical sciences #Physics and Society (physics.soc-ph) #Traffic and Road Safety #Traffic control and management #Transportation Planning and Optimization #physics.soc-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.physics/0507126
arxiv created 2005/07/15 · openalex publication_date 2005/07/15 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The scientific field of traffic engineering encompasses a rich set of mathematical techniques, as well as researchers with entirely different backgrounds. This paper provides an overview of what is currently the state-of-the-art with respect to traffic flow theory. Starting with a brief history, we introduce the microscopic and macroscopic characteristics of vehicular traffic flows. Moving on, we review some performance indicators that allow us to assess the quality of traffic operations. A final part of this paper discusses some of the relations between traffic flow characteristics, i.e., the fundamental diagrams, and sheds some light on the different points of view adopted by the traffic engineering community.