AHB45
Committee on Traffic Flow Theory & Characteristics
Transportation Research Board
National Academy of Sciences

Traffic Flow Theory and Characteristics Committee (AHB45)

2008 Summer Meeting – July 8-10, 2008 – Woods Hole, MA

Symposium on The Fundamental Diagram: 75 Years

(Greenshields 75 Symposium)

PROCEEDINGS

Background Materials
Traffic Flow Theory Monograph:

• An Introduction to Traffic Flow Theory, Highway Research Board Special Report 79, 1964
• Traffic Flow Theory: A Monograph, Transportation Research Board Special Report 165, 1975
• Revised Traffic Flow Theory Monograph, 2001 [purchase bound version]

Greenshields:

• Traffic Surveys to Solve Highway Problems, 1932
• The Photographic Method of Studying Traffic Behavior, 1934
• A Study of Traffic Capacity, 1935
• Distance and Time Required to Overtake and Pass Cars, 1935
• Studying Traffic Capacity by New Methods, 1935
• Reaction Time in Automobile Driving, 1936
• Reaction-Time and Traffic Behavior, 1937
• Organization and Functions of City Traffic Engineering Departments, 1940 (cover only)
• Traffic Performance at Urban Street Intersections, 1947
• Statistics with Applications to Highway Traffic analyses, 1952 (cover only)
• Quality and Theory of Traffic Flow, 1961
• Changes in Driver Performance with Time in Driving, 1964 (cover only)
• The Development of a Method of Predicting High Accident and High Violation Drivers, 1965 (cover only)

Treiterer (courtesy of Ray Benekohal):

• Application of Infra-Red Technology to Control Vehicle Movement in a Platoon of Cars
• Effect of Signal Spacing on Platoon Dispersion, 1973
• Investigation of Traffic Dynamics by Aerial Photogrammetry Techniques, 1975
  • Interim 1 (1967), Interim 2 (1969), Interim 3 (1970), Interim 4 (1972)
• The Hysteresis Phenomenon in Traffic Flow, Treiterer and Myers (1974)

Opening Session:
Foundations of Traffic Flow Theory – The Fundamental Diagram
Tuesday, July 8, 2008, 08:30 AM - 12:00 PM
 

Invited Presentations

I.1: Foundations of Traffic Flow Theory I: Greenshields' Legacy - Highway Traffic
Reinhart Kuehne, German Aerospace Center

I.2 Foundations of Traffic Flow Theory II: Greenshields' Legacy - Urban Streets

Nathan H. Gartner, University of Massachusetts Lowell

I.3: Foundations of Traffic Flow Theory III: Treiterer's Legacy - Measurements and Characteristics
Rahim Benekohal, University of Illinois

I.4: Foundations of Traffic Flow Theory IV: Modern Approaches to Traffic Flow Modeling the Three-phase Theory

Boris Kerner, Daimler AG, Germany

Technical Session A:
The Fundamental Diagram:  From Theory to Practice
Tuesday, July 8, 2008, 01:30 PM - 05:00 PM

A.1: Traffic Flow Theory: Historical Research Perspectives
S L Dhingra and I. Gull, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, India

A.2: Traffic Flow Prospectives: From Fundamental Diagram to Energy Balance
Reinhard Mahnke, Christof Liebe, Institute of Physics, Rostock University, Rostock, Germany
Reinhart Kuehne, Transportation Studies Group, German Aerospace Center, Berlin, Germany
Haizhong Wang, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, USA

A.3:  A Stochastic Macroscopic Modeling Framework unifying Kinematic Wave Modeling and Three Phase Traffic Theory
Serge P. Hoogendoorn, Hans van Lint, Victor Knoop, Delft University of Technology

 A.4:  Investigation of LWR Model with Flux Function Driven by Random Free Flow Speed
Jia Li, Qian-Yong Chen, Haizhong Wang, and Daiheng Ni, University of Massachusetts Amherst

A.5: A Macroscopic Fundamental Diagram of Urban Traffic: Recent Findings
Nikolas Geroliminis, University of Minnesota

A.6: Influence of Various Restrictions on Speed-Flow Models [REVISED]
Marian Tracz and Stanislaw Gaca, Cracow University of Technology, Cracow, Poland

A.7:  Quality of Service Beyond the Traditional Fundamental Diagram
Anja Estel, Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany

Technical Session B
Measurements and Characteristics of Traffic Flow
Wednesday, July 9, 2008, 08:30 AM – 10:15 AM 

B.1: Measuring Traffic Flow Using Real-time Measurement [REVISED]
BG Heydecker and JD Addison, Centre for Transport Studies, University College London

B.2: Airborne Traffic Flow Data and Traffic Management
Mark Hickman and Pitu Mirchandani, ATLAS Center, University of Arizona

B.3:  Bird's Eye Perspective on Traffic Flow Theory – New Insights Observing Traffic from a Helicopter
Serge P. Hoogendoorn, Delft University of Technology

B.4:  From Inductance Loops to Vehicle Trajectories
R. Eddie Wilson, University of Bristol, U.K.

Technical Session C
Empirical Observations of Traffic Flow Characteristics
Wednesday, July 9, 2008, 10:30 AM – 12:15 PM

C.1:  Empirical Relation between Stochastic Capacities and Capacities Obtained from the Speed-Flow Diagram
Justin Geistefeldt, Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany

C.2: Adaptive Estimation of Speed-Density Relations for Online Network Traffic Prediction
Hani S. Mahmassani, Northwestern University and Xiao Qin, Brudis & Associates, Inc.

C.3:  Fundamental Diagram for Signalized Arterials: An Empirical Analysis from High-Resolution Traffic Data
Henry X. Liu, Xinkai Wu, and Nikolas Geroliminis, University of Minnesota

C.4:  Fundamental Diagram on Urban Roads – Myth or Truth?
Elmar Brockfeld, Alexander Sohr, and Peter Wagner
Institute of Transportation Systems, German Aerospace Centre, Berlin, Germany
Nathan H. Gartner, University of Massachusetts Lowell

Technical Session D
Simulation and Calibration of Traffic Flow Models
Wednesday, July 9, 2008, 01:30 PM – 05:00 PM

D.1 A Simple and Pragmatic Representation of Traffic Flow
Michael MacNicholas, University of Ulster, N. Ireland

D.2 Calibration of Steady-State Car Following Models using Macroscopic Loop Detector Data
Hesham Rakha and Yu Gao, Virginia Tech

D.3  New Insights on Fundamental Diagram Calibration from Loop Detectors Data
Nicolas Chiabaut, Christine Buisson, Ludovic Leclercq, INRETS, France

D.4  Calibrating Speed-Density Functions for Mesoscopic Traffic Simulation
Ramachandran Balakrishna, Constantinos Antoniou, Haris N. Koutsopoulos, Yang Wen, Moshe Ben-Akiva, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

D.5  The Anisotropic Mesoscopic Simulation Model on Interrupted Highway Facilities
Yi-Chang Chiu and Jorge A. Villalobos, University of Arizona

D.6  The Butterfly Effect: Imbalances in Lane Change Accommodation Time and Lasting Disturbances
B. Coifman, C. Wang and Y. Xuan, Ohio State University

D.7  Strategies to Improve Dissipation Into Destination Networks Using Macroscopic Network Flow Models
Vinayak V. Dixit and Essam A. Radwan, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL

Panel Discussion
Perspectives on Traffic Flow Theory: Beyond Greenshields
Thursday, July 10, 2008, 10:00 AM – 12:00 noon
Panel members: H.S. Mahmassani (moderator), R. Bertini , C. Buisson, N. Gartner,
S. Hoogendoorn, B. Kerner, R. Kuehne

Panelists will start an open discussion (with input from all participants) on developments in traffic
science, and implications for practice. Questions to be addressed include:

• Did Greenshields’ work completely miss the breakdown phenomenon?
• Will ongoing developments in vehicle technologies (intelligent cruise control, peer-to-peer
  networks) change in any fundamental ways Greenshields’ significance?
• Will better traffic measurement techniques reveal new insights that could fundamentally
  change the field?
• Is there an over-emphasis on microscopic simulation that has shifted focus from
  fundamental understanding of collective effects?
• How well is traffic science understood by traffic engineers in practice and what can be
  done about it?

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