A new continuum traffic model obtained from kinetic theory

A new continuum traffic flow model has been obtained from a kinetic model which was developed earlier by the author. The continuum model is derived from the kinetic model by taking moments of a Boltzmann equation. While previous continuum formulations have attempted to describe traffic dynamics in terms of only mean speed and traffic density, this new model introduces a new macroscopic variable which is called traffic pressure. The traffic pressure is proportional to the variance in the traffic speed distribution and is analogous to the gas pressure used in the modeling of gas dynamics.