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

2026-02-10

AI Summary

This study addresses the inefficiency, safety hazards, and increased emissions caused by stop-and-go traffic waves on highways, which existing congestion-absorption strategies struggle to mitigate in practice. Inspired by police vehicle lane-changing maneuvers, we propose a practical “slow-in, fast-out” driving strategy requiring only a single vehicle and two fixed detectors, thereby translating real-world enforcement behavior into an actionable method for traffic wave suppression. We formulate the SVDD-JAD problem, identify five key influencing parameters, and implement a measurable and deployable solution using the SUMO platform integrated with real-time detector data. Experiments demonstrate that the proposed strategy effectively suppresses isolated traffic wave propagation without inducing secondary waves, confirming its efficacy and practicality. All code has been open-sourced to facilitate reproducibility.

Technology Category

• Planning, Routing, and Scheduling: Optimization of Spatio-temporal Systems
• Application Domains: Transportation
• Search and Optimization: Mixed Discrete/Continuous Search

Application Category

• Security and Privacy: Large-scale security measurements
• Graph Algorithms and Modeling for the Web: Efficient manipulation of static and dynamic Web-related graphs
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Efficiency and scalability of Web search engines

Abstract

Stop-and-go waves, as a major form of freeway traffic congestion, cause severe and long-lasting adverse effects, including reduced traffic efficiency, increased driving risks, and higher vehicle emissions. Amongst the highway traffic management strategies, jam-absorption driving (JAD), in which a dedicated vehicle performs"slow-in"and"fast-out"maneuvers before being captured by a stop-and-go wave, has been proposed as a potential method for preventing the propagation of such waves. However, most existing JAD strategies remain impractical mainly due to the lack of discussion regarding implementation vehicles and operational conditions. Inspired by real-world observations of police-car swerving behavior, this paper first introduces a Single-Vehicle Two-Detector Jam-Absorption Driving (SVDD-JAD) problem, and then proposes a practical JAD strategy that transforms such behavior into a maneuver capable of suppressing the propagation of an isolated stop-and-go wave. Five key parameters that significantly affect the proposed strategy, namely, JAD speed, inflow traffic speed, wave width, wave speed, and in-wave speed, are identified and systematically analyzed. Using a SUMO-based simulation as an illustrative example, we further demonstrate how these parameters can be measured in practice with two stationary roadside traffic detectors. The results show that the proposed JAD strategy successfully suppresses the propagation of a stop-and-go wave, without triggering a secondary wave. This paper is expected to take a significant step toward making JAD practical, advancing it from a theoretical concept to a feasible and implementable strategy. To promote reproducibility in the transportation domain, we have also open-sourced all the code on our GitHub repository https://github.com/gotrafficgo.

Problem

• stop-and-go waves
• jam-absorption driving
• traffic congestion
• practical implementation
• freeway traffic management

Innovation

• jam-absorption driving
• stop-and-go waves
• SVDD-JAD
• traffic wave suppression
• practical implementation