Energy Consumption in Traffic Flow with a Slowdown Section

Based on the Nagel-Schreckenberg model, an extended cellular automaton model is proposed to simulate the characteristics of the energy consumption in traffic flow with a slowdown section by considering the stochastic noise, the length and speed limit of the slowdown section. The simulation results show that the energy consumption is determined by the length Ls of the slowdown section as well as the speed limit Vs of the slowdown section. The smaller Vs and the larger Ls can effectively alleviate energy consumption. Through vehicle accidents and energy consumption analysis, an important conclusion is drawn that Vs =1 may be an optimum design to drive safely and reduce energy consumption from traffic control. Furthermore, the stochastic braking probability P has also an important effect on energy consumption.