THEORY OF CONGESTED TRAFFIC FLOW: SELF-ORGANIZATION WITHOUT BOTTLENECKS

This paper contains the results of experimental observations of the phenomena of self-organization in traffic flow on German highways. The observations allow one to suggest that there are at least two phenomena of "self-organization without bottlenecks" in real traffic flow: (1) spontaneous formation of a local region of synchronized traffic flow in initially free traffic flow; and (2) spontaneous formation of a traffic jam in synchronized traffic flow. A theory of congested traffic flow which may qualitatively explain these and other diverse effects of self-organization in real traffic flow is discussed.