In this study, a new continuum traffic model is established in consideration of the diverse reactivity effect that emerges from driving attention and the vehicle’s inertia. To instigate this diverse reactivity effect, two new functions are introduced, namely, a driver’s sensitivity function relying on the flow field’s instantaneous density that follows a reverse tendency of optimal velocity function and an inertial equilibrium velocity function assuming the vehicle’s inertia coefficient. Comparative analysis is performed using the proposed model and the conventional full velocity difference model. To ascertain the flow field neutralization capability of this model, a neutral stability analysis and the attendant neutral stability condition are derived. The complex behavior of the model near the critical point is investigated via nonlinear analysis, and the wavy solution of the Korteweg-de Vries–Burgers equation is obtained. To verify the analytical solution, a numerical simulation is performed, with the results demonstrating excellent agreement with the obtained theoretical results.
PACS numbers: 89.40.-a (Transportation); 87.15. Aa (Theory and modeling; Computer simulation)