A New Traffic Flow Model with the Effects of Backward Looking and Relative Current

The forward looking lattice model of traffic flow is extended to take the backward looking effect and the relative current effect into account. The performance of the new traffic flow model is investigated analytically and numerically. The stability, neutral stability and instability conditions are obtained by the use of the linear stability theory. The stability of the uniform flow is strengthened due to the effects of the backward looking and the relative current. By increasing the strengths of the backward looking effect and the relative current effect, the stable region increases and the traffic jam is suppressed effectively. The numerical simulation results are in good agreement with the linearly analytical results.