Analysis of Shock Waves and Speed Peak Propagations in Car-Following Conditions from Start to Stop within Short Distances

Abstract

The car-following platoon consisted of ten vehicles with the leading vehicle initiating perturbations on a test-track. Vehicle movements varied based on the speed patterns initiated by the leading vehicle with each data set including a cycle of stop, acceleration, car-following, deceleration, and complete stop. Shock waves are normally used for stop and go conditions at a fixed location, however this study focused on observing repeated shock waves created by the same group of drivers repeatedly. As well as studying the vehicle trajectories in microscopic level, speed wave propagations among the vehicles were also studied considering asymptotic stability in the car-following platoon. After carefully reviewing the stop and go vehicle trajectories, it was found that there is a discrepancy between actual vehicle trajectories and hypothetical uniform traffic flows in the shock wave theory derived from the macroscopic traffic model especially in the case of short distances.