Car Break Down in Traffic

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WHAT IS IT?

This model demonstrates how traffic jams can form, and adds the variable of a broken down car. At random a car breaks down and blocks the lane for some time, but starts back up again at which point another car breaks down somewhere else.

As in the Traffic Basic model, traffic may slow down and jam without any centralized cause. Drivers can react by changing lanes, although this often does little to solve their problem.

REFLECTION

The change we made to this model was to add a slider to allow the user to change the number of lanes on the model. While this is not a change to the agent, it nicely shows that even if we have more lanes a traffic jam will still occur.

The agent-based change in this model is a car breaking down randomly during the traffic jam. The car that breaks down is colored orange until it is repaired and then it turns blue again and blends in with the rest of the traffic flow. The same rules that apply to traffic apply to the broken down car: if a car comes up behind a broken down car, it should move into another lane to go around it. Yet, with this added layer the traffic conditions worsen. This is a meaningful intervention as this event is also observable in everyday life.

From exploring the models we learned how small changes to the code can have a big impact on the larger system. For example, if you add a semi-colon to the slow down car command, you will resolve the traffic jam because the cars have adaptive cruise control. In this case, one character completely changes the nature of the agents in the complex system.

HOW TO USE IT

Click on the SETUP button to set up the cars. Click on GO to start the cars moving. The GO ONCE button drives the cars for just one tick of the clock.

The NUMBER-OF-CARS slider controls the number of cars on the road. If you change the value of this slider while the model is running, cars will be added or removed "on the fly", so you can see the impact on traffic right away.

The SPEED-UP slider controls the rate at which cars accelerate when there are no cars ahead.

The SLOW-DOWN slider controls the rate at which cars decelerate when there is a car close ahead.

The MAX-PATIENCE slider controls how many times a car can slow down before a driver loses their patience and tries to change lanes.

You may wish to slow down the model with the speed slider to watch the behavior of certain cars more closely.

The SELECT CAR button allows you to highlight a particular car. It turns that car red, so that it is easier to keep track of it. SELECT CAR is easier to use while GO is turned off. If the user does not select a car manually, a car is chosen at random to be the "selected car".

You can either watch or follow the selected car using the WATCH SELECTED CAR and FOLLOW SELECTED CAR buttons. The RESET PERSPECTIVE button brings the view back to its normal state.

The SELECTED CAR SPEED monitor displays the speed of the selected car. The MEAN-SPEED monitor displays the average speed of all the cars.

The YCOR OF CARS plot shows a histogram of how many cars are in each lane, as determined by their y-coordinate. The histogram also displays the amount of cars that are in between lanes while they are trying to change lanes.

The CAR SPEEDS plot displays four quantities over time:

the maximum speed of any car - CYAN
the minimum speed of any car - BLUE
the average speed of all cars - GREEN
the speed of the selected car - RED

The DRIVER PATIENCE plot shows four quantities for the current patience of drivers: the max, the min, the average and the current patience of the driver of the selected car.

THINGS TO NOTICE

Traffic jams can start from small "seeds." Cars start with random positions. If some cars are clustered together, they will move slowly, causing cars behind them to slow down, and a traffic jam forms.

Even though all of the cars are moving forward, the traffic jams tend to move backwards. This behavior is common in wave phenomena: the behavior of the group is often very different from the behavior of the individuals that make up the group.

Just as each car has a current speed, each driver has a current patience. Each time the driver has to hit the brakes to avoid hitting the car in front of them, they loose a little patience. When a driver's patience expires, the driver tries to change lane. The driver's patience gets reset to the maximum patience.

When the number of cars in the model is high, drivers lose their patience quickly and start weaving in and out of lanes. This phenomenon is called "snaking" and is common in congested highways. And if the number of cars is high enough, almost every car ends up trying to change lanes and the traffic slows to a crawl, making the situation even worse, with cars getting momentarily stuck between lanes because they are unable to change. Does that look like a real life situation to you?

Watch the MEAN-SPEED monitor, which computes the average speed of the cars. What happens to the speed over time? What is the relation between the speed of the cars and the presence (or absence) of traffic jams?

Look at the two plots. Can you detect discernible patterns in the plots?

The grass patches on each side of the road are all a slightly different shade of green. The road patches, to a lesser extent, are different shades of grey. This is not just about making the model look nice: it also helps create an impression of movement when using the FOLLOW SELECTED CAR button.

THINGS TO TRY

What could you change to minimize the chances of traffic jams forming, besides just the number of cars? What is the relationship between number of cars, number of lanes, and (in this case) the length of each lane?

Explore changes to the sliders SLOW-DOWN and SPEED-UP. How do these affect the flow of traffic? Can you set them so as to create maximal snaking?

Change the code so that all cars always start on the same lane. Does the proportion of cars on each lane eventually balance out? How long does it take?

Try using the "default" turtle shape instead of the car shape, either by changing the code or by typing ask turtles [ set shape "default" ] in the command center after clicking SETUP. This will allow you to quickly spot the cars trying to change lanes. What happens to them when there is a lot of traffic?

EXTENDING THE MODEL

The way this model is written makes it easy to add more lanes. Look for the number-of-lanes reporter in the code and play around with it.

Try to create a "Traffic Crossroads" (where two sets of cars might meet at a traffic light), or "Traffic Bottleneck" model (where two lanes might merge to form one lane).

Note that the cars never crash into each other: a car will never enter a patch or pass through a patch containing another car. Remove this feature, and have the turtles that collide die upon collision. What will happen to such a model over time?

NETLOGO FEATURES

Note the use of mouse-down? and mouse-xcor/mouse-ycor to enable selecting a car for special attention.

Each turtle has a shape, unlike in some other models. NetLogo uses set shape to alter the shapes of turtles. You can, using the shapes editor in the Tools menu, create your own turtle shapes or modify existing ones. Then you can modify the code to use your own shapes.

RELATED MODELS

"Traffic Basic": a simple model of the movement of cars on a highway.
"Traffic Basic Utility": a version of "Traffic Basic" including a utility function for the cars.
"Traffic Basic Adaptive": a version of "Traffic Basic" where cars adapt their acceleration to try and maintain a smooth flow of traffic.
"Traffic Basic Adaptive Individuals": a version of "Traffic Basic Adaptive" where each car adapts individually, instead of all cars adapting in unison.
"Traffic Intersection": a model of cars traveling through a single intersection.
"Traffic Grid": a model of traffic moving in a city grid, with stoplights at the intersections.
"Traffic Grid Goal": a version of "Traffic Grid" where the cars have goals, namely to drive to and from work.
"Gridlock HubNet": a version of "Traffic Grid" where students control traffic lights in real-time.
"Gridlock Alternate HubNet": a version of "Gridlock HubNet" where students can enter NetLogo code to plot custom metrics.

HOW TO CITE

If you mention this model or the NetLogo software in a publication, we ask that you include the citations below.

For the model itself:

Wilensky, U. & Payette, N. (1998). NetLogo Traffic 2 Lanes model. http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/models/Traffic2Lanes. Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.

Please cite the NetLogo software as:

Wilensky, U. (1999). NetLogo. http://ccl.northwestern.edu/netlogo/. Center for Connected Learning and Computer-Based Modeling, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 License. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford, California 94305, USA.

Commercial licenses are also available. To inquire about commercial licenses, please contact Uri Wilensky at uri@northwestern.edu.

This model was created as part of the project: CONNECTED MATHEMATICS: MAKING SENSE OF COMPLEX PHENOMENA THROUGH BUILDING OBJECT-BASED PARALLEL MODELS (OBPML). The project gratefully acknowledges the support of the National Science Foundation (Applications of Advanced Technologies Program) -- grant numbers RED #9552950 and REC #9632612.

This model was converted to NetLogo as part of the projects: PARTICIPATORY SIMULATIONS: NETWORK-BASED DESIGN FOR SYSTEMS LEARNING IN CLASSROOMS and/or INTEGRATED SIMULATION AND MODELING ENVIRONMENT. The project gratefully acknowledges the support of the National Science Foundation (REPP & ROLE programs) -- grant numbers REC #9814682 and REC-0126227. Converted from StarLogoT to NetLogo, 2001.

Comments and Questions

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Click to Run Model

globals [
  selected-car   ; the currently selected car
  lanes          ; a list of the y coordinates of different lanes
  broken-car     ; a single car that's broken down blocking a lane
]

turtles-own [
  speed         ; the current speed of the car
  top-speed     ; the maximum speed of the car (different for all cars)
  target-lane   ; the desired lane of the car
  patience      ; the driver's current level of patience
]

to setup
  clear-all
  set-default-shape turtles "car"
  draw-road
  create-or-remove-cars
  set selected-car one-of turtles
  set broken-car one-of turtles
  ask selected-car [ set color red ]
  ask broken-car [set color orange ]
  reset-ticks
end 

to create-or-remove-cars

  ; make sure we don't have too many cars for the room we have on the road
  let road-patches patches with [ member? pycor lanes ]
  if number-of-cars > count road-patches [
    set number-of-cars count road-patches
  ]

  create-turtles (number-of-cars - count turtles) [
    set color car-color
    move-to one-of free road-patches
    set target-lane pycor
    set heading 90
    set top-speed 0.5 + random-float 0.5
    set speed 0.5
    set patience random max-patience
  ]

  if count turtles > number-of-cars [
    let n count turtles - number-of-cars
    ask n-of n [ other turtles ] of selected-car [ die ]
  ]
end 

to-report free [ road-patches ] ; turtle procedure
  let this-car self
  report road-patches with [
    not any? turtles-here with [ self != this-car ]
  ]
end 

to draw-road
  ask patches [
    ; the road is surrounded by green grass of varying shades
    set pcolor green - random-float 0.5
  ]
  set lanes n-values number-of-lanes [ [n] ->
    number-of-lanes - (n * 2) - 1
  ]
  ask patches with [ abs pycor <= number-of-lanes ] [
    ; the road itself is varying shades of grey
    set pcolor grey - 2.5 + random-float 0.25
  ]
  draw-road-lines
end 

to draw-road-lines
  let y (last lanes) - 1 ; start below the "lowest" lane
  while [ y <= first lanes + 1 ] [
    if not member? y lanes [
      ; draw lines on road patches that are not part of a lane
      ifelse abs y = number-of-lanes
        [ draw-line y yellow 0 ]  ; yellow for the sides of the road
        [ draw-line y white 0.5 ] ; dashed white between lanes
    ]
    set y y + 1 ; move up one patch
  ]
end 

to draw-line [ y line-color gap ]
  ; We use a temporary turtle to draw the line:
  ; - with a gap of zero, we get a continuous line;
  ; - with a gap greater than zero, we get a dasshed line.
  create-turtles 1 [
    setxy (min-pxcor - 0.5) y
    hide-turtle
    set color line-color
    set heading 90
    repeat world-width [
      pen-up
      forward gap
      pen-down
      forward (1 - gap)
    ]
    die
  ]
end 

to go
  create-or-remove-cars
  ask [ other turtles ] of broken-car [ move-forward ]
  ask broken-car [break-down-car]
  ask turtles with [ patience <= 0 ] [ choose-new-lane ]
  ask turtles with [ ycor != target-lane ] [ move-to-target-lane ]
  tick
  if ticks mod 250 = 0 [
    ask broken-car [ set color blue ]
    set broken-car one-of turtles
    ask broken-car [ set color orange ]
    ask broken-car [ break-down-car ]
  ]
end 

to move-forward ; turtle procedure
  set heading 90
  speed-up-car ; we tentatively speed up, but might have to slow down
  let blocking-cars other turtles in-cone (1 + speed) 45 with [ y-distance <= 1 ]
  let blocking-car min-one-of blocking-cars [ distance myself ]
  if blocking-car != nobody [
    ; match the speed of the car ahead of you and then slow
    ; down so you are driving a bit slower than that car.
    set speed [ speed ] of blocking-car
    if blocking-car = broken-car [
      set speed 0
    ]
    if speed > 0 [
      slow-down-car
    ]
    if speed = 0 [
      set patience -1
    ]
  ]

  forward speed
end 

to break-down-car ; turtle procedure
  set speed 0
end 

to slow-down-car ; turtle procedure
  set speed (speed - deceleration)
  if speed < 0 [ set speed deceleration ]
  ; every time you hit the brakes, you loose a little patience
  set patience patience - 1
end 

to speed-up-car ; turtle procedure
  set speed (speed + acceleration)
  if speed > top-speed [ set speed top-speed ]
end 

to choose-new-lane ; turtle procedure
  ; Choose a new lane among those with the minimum
  ; distance to your current lane (i.e., your ycor).
  let other-lanes remove ycor lanes
  if not empty? other-lanes [
    let min-dist min map [ [y] -> abs (y - ycor) ] other-lanes
    let closest-lanes filter [ [y] -> abs (y - ycor) = min-dist ] other-lanes
    set target-lane one-of closest-lanes
    set patience max-patience
  ]
end 

to move-to-target-lane ; turtle procedure
  set heading ifelse-value (target-lane < ycor) [ 180 ] [ 0 ]
  let blocking-cars other turtles in-cone (1 + abs (ycor - target-lane)) 180 with [ x-distance <= 1 ]
  let blocking-car min-one-of blocking-cars [ distance myself ]
  ifelse blocking-car = nobody [
    forward 0.2
    set ycor precision ycor 1 ; to avoid floating point errors
  ] [
    ; slow down if the car blocking us is behind, otherwise speed up
    ifelse towards blocking-car <= 180 [ slow-down-car ] [ speed-up-car ]
  ]
end 

to-report x-distance
  report distancexy [ xcor ] of myself ycor
end 

to-report y-distance
  report distancexy xcor [ ycor ] of myself
end 

to select-car
  ; allow the user to select a different car by clicking on it with the mouse
  if mouse-down? [
    let mx mouse-xcor
    let my mouse-ycor
    if any? turtles-on patch mx my [
      ask selected-car [ set color car-color ]
      set selected-car one-of turtles-on patch mx my
      ask selected-car [ set color red ]
      display
    ]
  ]
end 

to-report car-color
  ; give all cars a blueish color, but still make them distinguishable
  report one-of [ blue cyan sky ] + 1.5 + random-float 1.0
end 




; Copyright 1998 Uri Wilensky.
; See Info tab for full copyright and license.

There is only one version of this model, created about 8 years ago by Veronika Gadow.

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