Evaluation of parameter distribution of car-following model at expressway bottleneck sag section

Abstract

It is known that traffic congestion can happen under various traffic demand even at the same bottleneck section such as sag section on Expressways in Japan. Such uncertainty of congestion occurrence is basically caused by the difference of individual characteristics of car-following behavior. This paper reports a part of a research which aims to quantify the influence of individual car-following characteristic on congestion at sag section. A framework of car-following model including grade effects is introduced. Model parameters for each vehicle for the proposed model are calibrated with observed slope trajectories of vehicles at a sag section. Correlations on parameter distributions are analyzed and clustered to reflect various drivers' characteristics.