  Lagging or halted traffic is bothersome. As such, it is desirable to have a
model that can begin to determine the efficiency of various traffic
standardizations. Our model intended to create a multifaceted realistic
simulation of traffic flow while considering several factors. These factors
included: passing conventions, e.g., right except to pass (REP) rule, system
perturbation caused by insertion of an accident into the system, accessible
number of lanes available with the REP, various human factors such as variation
of individual maximum speed and likelihood to pass. A succession of models were
created from a variation on an existing single-lane traffic model and adding
extra dimensionality to the lattice to include multiple lanes, passing
conventions, stochastic elements for individuality, and queuing rules to
movement algorithms. We found that the REP is an effective means of increasing
the critical density that a system can support. Eliminating human factors and
thereby automating the system, results in a 160% increase in the sustainable
critical density of the system. The number of lanes increases the critical
density of the system, but the maximum efficiency of the speed distribution
remains the same. Excluding system automation, the optimal speed distribution
for drivers maximal speed was found to be Beta(5,5). Accidents in stable
systems can cause small local jams without causing global jams.
