We analyze the characteristic features of traffic breakdown. To describe this phenomenon we apply the probabilistic model regarding the jam emergence as the formation of a large car cluster on a highway. In these terms, the breakdown occurs through the formation of a certain critical nucleus in the metastable vehicle flow, which enables us to confine ourselves to one cluster model. We assume that, first, the growth of the car cluster is governed by attachment of cars to the cluster whose rate is mainly determined by the mean headway distance between the car in the vehicle flow and, maybe, also by the headway distance in the cluster. Second, the cluster dissolution is determined by the car escape from the cluster whose rate depends on the cluster size directly. The latter is justified using the available experimental data for the correlation properties of the synchronized mode. We write the appropriate master equation converted then into the Fokker-Planck equation for the cluster distribution function and analyze the formation of the critical car cluster due to the climb over a certain potential barrier. The further cluster growth irreversibly causes jam formation. Numerical estimates of the obtained characteristics and the experimental data of the traffic breakdown are compared. In particular, we draw a conclusion that the characteristic intrinsic time scale of the breakdown phenomenon should be about 1 min and explain the case why the traffic volume interval inside which traffic breakdown is observed is sufficiently wide.

• Received 10 November 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.65.066125