EVALUATION OF MICROSCOPIC CAR-FOLLOWING BEHAVIOUR

Microscopic traffic simulation tools are increasingly being applied to deal with dynamic and operational traffic problems and ITS applications. Each tool has its own formulation of microscopic traffic behaviour and this has an impact on the accuracy of the model in replicating traffic behaviour on the road. This paper describes the car-following models implemented in a number of commercial traffic simulation tools. The paper then describes the application of these simulators to an experimental data set that was collected from a European study. The field experiment recorded the speed and relative distance of the follower and leader vehicles on a one-lane road using especially equipped vehicles. The data from the study was used to test the car following behaviour of a number of microscopic traffic simulators and the initial findings are reported in this paper. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E210528.