The Spatial Evolution of Queues During the Morning Commute in a Single Corridor

This paper presents a qualitative description of the evolution of traffic congestion during the morning rush hour in a long freeway leading to a single destination. Traffic is generated at the freeway's many on-ramps during a short period of time and then is assumed to subside. Capacity limitations create queues on the ramps and the freeway, which is assumed to evolve according with the hydrodynamic theory of traffic flow. A special case that can be described with just a few parameters is analyzed in detail.