Bifurcation Analysis of Driver's Characteristics in Car-Following Model

According to traffic flow theory, traffic is affected not only by road conditions such as bottlenecks, the environment, interruptions, and so on but also by the driver's behavior. To control and manage increasingly complex traffic networks, it also becomes necessary to study the effects of driver characteristics significantly. In this research, a novel car-following model is proposed which considers both the driver's cautious and aggressive instincts for optimal and relative velocity integrals. To analyze the stability of the new model, a small perturbation method was used. Further, the modified Korteweg–de-Vries equations were established with the help of a reductive perturbation method. In bifurcation analysis, we examine the existence and stability of Hopf bifurcation in various systems. This helps to gain deeper insight into the behavior of these dynamical systems and can be used to develop more efficient control strategies. Numerical simulations and theoretical analyses both show that the aspects of the enhanced model related to driver characteristics have a major affect on traffic flow stability. Additionally, the model can adeptly handle traffic congestion and quickly return to its normal state if any disruption occurs.