The density wave in a new anisotropic continuum model

In this paper the new continuum traffic flow model proposed by Jiang et al is developed based on an improved car-following model, in which the speed gradient term replaces the density gradient term in the equation of motion. It overcomes the wrong-way travel which exists in many high-order continuum models. Based on the continuum version of car-following model, the condition for stable traffic flow is derived. Nonlinear analysis shows that the density fluctuation in traffic flow induces a variety of density waves. Near the onset of instability, a small disturbance could lead to solitons determined by the Korteweg--de-Vries (KdV) equation, and the soliton solution is derived.