A comparative study of the LWR-IM traffic model and shockwave analysis

A new traffic model called LWR-IM has been developed to simulate traffic dynamics in urban arterial network. The arrival profile produced by the LWR-IM could be analyzed using input-output method which is less tedious compared to analyzing the LWR using Shockwave analysis. This paper presents a comparative study of queues produced by the LWR-IM and Shockwave analysis respectively. The study reveals that the queues simulated using the LWR-IM is compatible with Shockwave analysis. More importantly, the LWR-IM provides a more efficient method to analyze the LWR, thus further ascertaining the feasibility and efficiency of the model.