Study on the effects of driver’s lane-changing aggressiveness on traffic stability from an extended two-lane lattice model

• Study on the effects of driver’s lane-changing aggressiveness on traffic stability.
• The mKdV equation near the critical point is derived.
• The stabilizing effect of the optimal current difference is affected by the driver’s lane-changing aggressiveness.

In this paper, the effects of driver’s lane-changing aggressiveness on the stability of traffic flow of two-lane are studied by using a generalized lattice hydrodynamic model with consideration of lane-changing aggressiveness of each individual. The effect of lane-changing aggressiveness parameter on traffic stability is derived through employing linear stability analysis with finding that the driver’s lane-changing aggressiveness has an important impact on the stability of the traffic flow in a two-lane system. To describe the phase transition, the mKdV equation near the critical point is derived by using the reductive perturbation method, with obtaining the dependence of the propagation kink solution for traffic jams on the lane-changing aggressiveness. It can be concluded from the phase diagram of stability criterion that the higher lane-changing aggressiveness leads to a more stable traffic flow. In addition, the stabilizing effect of the optimal current difference weakens gradually with the increasing of the lane-changing aggressiveness adjusting coefficient, even vanishes when the value of lane-changing aggressiveness adjusting coefficient is greater than a critical value. Theoretical conclusions are also confirmed by the numerical simulations.