We study the lane-changing behavior in multilane highway modeling by a cellular automaton. We analyze the effects of speed limit and stochastic noise. A new parameter is introduced to allow vehicles not to change lanes even when the environmental criteria are met. Without stochastic noise, the lane-changing rate vanishes in the stationary states of a homogeneous highway. With stochastic noise, vehicles change lanes frequently even when there are no slow vehicles to overtake. The lane-changing rate reflects the intrinsic fluctuations much more than the inhomogeneity of the highway. Aggressive vehicles which change lanes at every opportunity will only keep a speed slightly larger than others.

• Received 9 April 2002

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.66.026124