Continuum models of traffic flow

The mystery of "stop-and-go" waves or "phantom jams" i.e. traffic jams that arise for no apparent reason has intrigued transportation engineers (and frustrated motorists!) for decades. Recent experiments by physicists in Japan show the development of such phantom jams on a periodic road approximately 0.25 km long. Building on a voluminous body of existing research and working with colleagues at MIT, I am developing mathematical models that try to elucidate these nonlinear dynamics. For further information, please visit http://math.mit.edu/projects/traffic/

Movies of traffic jams:
  • Japanese experiment showing the development of a phantom jam

    Media:
  • National Post, Sept. 29, 2014
  • Wired Magazine, July 2010
  • www.msnbc.msn.com, June 12, 2009

    Recent presentation:
  • On "jamitons," self-sustained nonlinear waves in traffic flow (with A.R. Kasimov, R.R. Rosales and B. Seibold) (.pdf)

    Recent publications:
  • Constructing set-valued fundamental diagrams from jamiton solutions in second order traffic models (Networks and Heterogeneous Media, 8, with B. Seibold, A.R. Kasimov and R.R. Rosales) (.pdf)
  • Self-sustained nonlinear waves in traffic flow (Phys. Rev. E, 79, with A.R. Kasimov, J.-C. Nave, R.R. Rosales and B. Seibold) (link)