Abstract
This paper presents a new cellular automata model for describing synchronized traffic flow. The fundamental diagrams, the spacetime plots and the 1 min average data have been analysed in detail. It is shown that the model can describe the outflow from the jams, the light synchronized flow as well as heavy synchronized flow with average speed greater than approximately 24 km h−1. As for the synchronized flow with speed lower than 24 km h−1, it is unstable and will evolve into the coexistence of jams, free flow and light synchronized flow. This is consistent with the empirical findings (Kerner B S 1998 Phys. Rev. Lett. 81 3797).