This book addresses the reader interested in vehicular traffic phenomena, who have not learned about them before. It presents traffic phenomena like traffic breakdown and the emergence of moving traffic jams by showcasing empirical traffic data measured in real-world traffic. The author explains how these empirical traffic studies have led to the three-phase traffic theory and why this new theory is in conflict with standard traffic theories developed before. Moreover, he presents the reason for the failure of applications of standard traffic theories in real-world traffic and discusses why understanding real traffic has caused a paradigm shift in traffic and transportation science. The book examines why understanding real traffic breakdown is the basis for an explanation for the autonomous driving effects on traffic flow. It shows that understanding real traffic is possible from real-world traffic data without the need of mathematical traffic models. This makes the book intuitive for non-specialists, who can qualitatively understand all the basic features of traffic dynamics. In turn, experienced traffic researchers can grasp concepts and ideas made here easily accessible by the author, one of the leading pioneers in the field of vehicular traffic.

This book offers a detailed investigation of breakdowns in traffic and transportation networks. It shows empirically that transitions from free flow to so-called synchronized flow, initiated by local disturbances at network bottlenecks, display a nucleation-type behavior: while small disturbances in free flow decay, larger ones grow further and lead to breakdowns at the bottlenecks. Further, it discusses in detail the significance of this nucleation effect for traffic and transportation theories, and the consequences this has for future automatic driving, traffic control, dynamic traffic assignment, and optimization in traffic and transportation networks.

The book

- proves the empirical nucleation nature of traffic breakdown in networks

- discusses the origin of the failure of classical traffic and transportation theories

- shows that the three-phase theory is incommensurable with the classical traffic theories, and

- explains why current state-of-the art dynamic traffic assignments tend to provoke heavy traffic congestion,

This book addresses the reader interested in vehicular traffic phenomena, who have not learned about them before. It presents traffic phenomena like traffic breakdown and the emergence of moving traffic jams by showcasing empirical traffic data measured in real-world traffic. The author explains how these empirical traffic studies have led to the three-phase traffic theory and why this new theory is in conflict with standard traffic theories developed before. Moreover, he presents the reason for the failure of applications of standard traffic theories in real-world traffic and discusses why understanding real traffic has caused a paradigm shift in traffic and transportation science. The book examines why understanding real traffic breakdown is the basis for an explanation for the autonomous driving effects on traffic flow. It shows that understanding real traffic is possible from real-world traffic data without the need of mathematical traffic models. This makes the book intuitive for non-specialists, who can qualitatively understand all the basic features of traffic dynamics. In turn, experienced traffic researchers can grasp concepts and ideas made here easily accessible by the author, one of the leading pioneers in the field of vehicular traffic.

This book offers a detailed investigation of breakdowns in traffic and transportation networks. It shows empirically that transitions from free flow to so-called synchronized flow, initiated by local disturbances at network bottlenecks, display a nucleation-type behavior: while small disturbances in free flow decay, larger ones grow further and lead to breakdowns at the bottlenecks. Further, it discusses in detail the significance of this nucleation effect for traffic and transportation theories, and the consequences this has for future automatic driving, traffic control, dynamic traffic assignment, and optimization in traffic and transportation networks.

The book

- proves the empirical nucleation nature of traffic breakdown in networks

- discusses the origin of the failure of classical traffic and transportation theories

- shows that the three-phase theory is incommensurable with the classical traffic theories, and

- explains why current state-of-the art dynamic traffic assignments tend to provoke heavy traffic congestion,