Introducing Buses into First-Order Macroscopic Traffic Flow Models

The aim of this paper is to provide a simple model of the interaction between buses and the surrounding traffic flow. Traffic flow is assumed to be described by a first-order macroscopic model of the Lighthill-Whitman-Richards type. As a consequence of their kinematics, which in large measure can be considered to be independent of the flow of other vehicles, buses should be considered as a moving capacity restriction from the point of view of other drivers. This simple interaction model is analyzed, mainly by considering the moving frame associated with the bus in order to derive analytical computation rules for derivation of the effects of the presence of the bus in the traffic flow. After deriving traffic equations in the moving frame associated with a bus, the usual basic concepts of first-order models, including those of relative traffic supply and demand, are generalized to the moving frame. A simple model for the bus-traffic interaction, assuming that the dimension of the bus can be neglected, can be derived from analytical calculations in the moving frame. Finally, some tentative results for the inclusion of buses into first-order traffic flow models, discretized according to Godunov’s scheme, are given.