Multilane traffic flow dynamics: Some macroscopic considerations

The subject of macroscopic modelling and analysis of multilane homodirectional freeway flow is discussed in this paper. Two existing models are extended and treated numerically so that their simplifying assumptions are relaxed. Further, two new formulations are developed; the first is two dimensional with respect to space (i.e. in addition to the street length it includes the street width explicitly) while the second is one dimensional high order dynamic (i.e. it incorporates a momentum equation in order to take into acount acceleration and inertia effects). All modelling alternatives are implemented into a few exemplary situations representing uninterrupted and interrupted flow conditions. Finally, comparisons with aggregate results obtained from microscopic simulation are presented.