  Recently we proposed an extension to the traffic model of Aw, Rascle and
Greenberg. The extended traffic model can be written as a hyperbolic system of
balance laws and numerically reproduces the reverse $\lambda$ shape of the
fundamental diagram of traffic flow. In the current work we analyze the steady
state solutions of the new model and their stability properties. In addition to
the equilibrium flow curve the trivial steady state solutions form two
additional branches in the flow-density diagram. We show that the
characteristic structure excludes parts of these branches resulting in the
reverse $\lambda$ shape of the flow-density relation. The upper branch is
metastable against the formation of synchronized flow for intermediate
densities and unstable for high densities, whereas the lower branch is unstable
for intermediate densities and metastable for high densities. Moreover, the
model can reproduce the typical speed of the downstream front of wide moving
jams. It further reproduces a constant outflow from wide moving jams, which is
far below the maximum free flow. Applying the model to simulate traffic flow at
a bottleneck we observe a general pattern with wide moving jams traveling
through the bottleneck.

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