Empirical basis for car-following theory development
| dc.creator | Wagner, Peter | |
| dc.creator | Lubashevsky, Ihor | |
| dc.date | 2003-11-09 | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2026-07-07T02:54:40Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2026-07-07T02:54:40Z | |
| dc.description | By analyzing data from a car-following experiment, it is shown that drivers control their car by a simple scheme. The acceleration $a(t)$ is held approximately constant for a certain time interval, followed by a jump to a new acceleration. These jumps seem to include a deterministic and a random component; the time $T$ between subsequent jumps is random, too. This leads to a dynamic, that never reaches a fixed-point ($a(t) \to 0$ and velocity difference to the car in front $Δv \to 0$) of the car-following dynamics. The existence of such a fixed-point is predicted by most of the existing car-following theories. Nevertheless, the phase-space distribution is clustered strongly at $Δv=0$. Here, the probability distribution in $Δv$ is (for small and medium distances $Δx$ between the cars) described by $p(Δv) \propto \exp(-|Δv|/Δv_0)$ indicating a dynamic that attracts cars to the region with small speed differences. The corresponding distances $Δx$ between the cars vary strongly. This variation might be a possible reason for the much-discussed widely scattered states found in highway traffic. | |
| dc.description | RevTex4, 4 pages, 6 figures | |
| dc.identifier | https://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0311192 | |
| dc.identifier | http://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0311192 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/22646 | |
| dc.subject | Statistical Mechanics | |
| dc.title | Empirical basis for car-following theory development | |
| dc.type | text |