Transforming Police-Car Swerving for Mitigating Isolated Stop-and-Go Traffic Waves: A Practice-Oriented Jam-Absorption Driving Strategy

Researchers propose a practical jam-absorption driving (JAD) strategy inspired by police-car swerving to suppress stop-and-go traffic waves on freeways. The SD-JAD approach uses two roadside detectors to measure key parameters and guide a vehicle through strategic slow-in/fast-out maneuvers, successfully preventing wave propagation without creating secondary congestion.

This article addresses a fundamental traffic engineering problem with real-world applicability. Stop-and-go waves represent a significant inefficiency on modern highways, creating cascading effects that increase emissions, reduce safety, and slow overall traffic flow. The research bridges the gap between theoretical traffic management and practical implementation—a critical distinction often overlooked in academic work.

The inspiration from observed police-car behavior demonstrates how real-world phenomena can inform scientific solutions. Rather than requiring complex vehicle-to-vehicle communication or autonomous systems, this approach leverages existing infrastructure (stationary detectors) and simple driving maneuvers executable by human drivers or existing traffic management vehicles. This pragmatic design choice substantially increases deployment feasibility compared to previous JAD proposals that demanded unrealistic operational conditions.

The identification and systematic analysis of five key parameters—JAD speed, inflow speed, wave width, wave speed, and in-wave speed—provides actionable guidance for practitioners. The SUMO simulation validation demonstrates that the strategy can suppress isolated waves without generating secondary congestion, a critical success criterion that previous theoretical models sometimes overlooked.

For transportation authorities and fleet operators, this research offers a deployable traffic management tool requiring minimal infrastructure investment. The methodology could be integrated into existing traffic management protocols, potentially reducing congestion costs estimated in billions annually. The work also establishes a framework for measuring traffic dynamics using basic detector data, enabling broader adoption across jurisdictions with varying technological capabilities.

• →JAD strategy inspired by police-car behavior offers practical implementation using only two stationary roadside detectors.
• →Five key parameters (JAD speed, inflow speed, wave width, wave speed, in-wave speed) significantly affect strategy effectiveness and can be measured in practice.
• →Proposed SD-JAD successfully suppresses stop-and-go wave propagation without triggering secondary waves in SUMO simulations.
• →Research bridges gap between theoretical traffic management concepts and deployable real-world solutions requiring minimal infrastructure.
• →Strategy addresses major freeway congestion sources affecting safety, efficiency, and vehicle emissions across transportation networks.