Development of New and Improved Driver-sensitive Car-following Model

Abstract

One of the important components of traffic simulation models is a car-following model that describes the driver behaviour in a car-following situation. The existing car-following models have some limitations that may adversely affect the performance of in-vehicle rear-end collision warning systems. This paper presents a car-following model that addresses some limitations of the existing models. The proposed model considers the variations in the drivers’ perception-reaction time and the effect of the front and back vehicles in the car-following situation. The proposed model explicitly considers the driver’s age and gender in car-following modeling. Actual vehicle tracking data obtained from the U.S. Federal Highway Administration were used to calibrate and validate the proposed model. The results of the proposed model in terms of replicating actual speed and spacing profiles of the following vehicle are promising.