Analysis of the influence of lane changing on traffic-flow dynamics based on the cellular automaton model

Many cellular automaton models (CA models) have been applied to analyze traffic flow. When analyzing multilane traffic flow, it is important how we define lane-changing rules. However, conventional models have used simple lane-changing rules that are dependent only on the distance from neighboring vehicles. We propose a new lane-changing rule considering velocity differences with neighboring vehicles; in addition, we embed the rules into a variant of the NagelSchreckenberg (NaSch) model, called the S-NFS model, by considering an open boundary condition. Using numerical simulations, we clarify the basic characteristics resulting from different assumptions with respect to lane changing.