Definitions of the three traffic phases.

Traffic flow phenomena are associated with a complex dynamic behaviour of spatio-temporal traffic patterns. The term spatio-temporal reflects the empirical evidence that traffic occurs in space and time. Therefore, only through a spatio-temporal analysis of real measured traffic data the understanding of features of real traffic is possible. In other words, spatio-temporal features of traffic can only be found, if traffic variables are measured in real traffic in space and time. (Author/publisher) See http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-02605-8 for a readable preview of the entire book.