Smart Traffic Systems Guided by Principles of Traffic Circuit Theorems

Accelerated urban growth across the world has led to the rapid growth in urban traffic volume. The growth of traffic volume has called upon the need for better traffic management systems. Traffic engineers has historically proposed various traffic models in order to better understand the traffic behavior and reduce the traffic congestion in cities. In order to implement smart traffic systems, the full underlying physical behavior of traffic systems must be understood. In this paper, we explore the traffic circuit model that is based on analogies to electrical circuit theorems. We apply the concepts of Ohm’s law and Kirchhoff circuital laws to study the effects of traffic continuity equations at the boundary of traffic connections of different road sizes, as well as at the intersection of two branch roads. Our traffic circuit model reveals unprecedented insights into the density-flow relationship of traffic systems, and the principles of the model can serve as a useful guide in designing smart traffic systems.