An explorative analysis is presented of an Advanced Driver Assistance system designed to warn drivers when approaching sharp decelerations in a queue tail. A review of different traffic flow models is given that can be used for the analysis. Kinetic traffic flow models are selected for the analysis amongst other bacause of their capability of reproducing different congestion patterns. It is shown how kinetic traffic flow models can be formulated as human kinetic models, based on fully continuous acceleration/deceleration behaviour and explicit modelling of driver alertness. A design for the ADA system is given and the system was applied to a reference situation with a queue. The explorative analysis shows that the system results in safer and smoother transition from free flowing to congested traffic. It also avoids compression of the queue-tail, thus prevention stop-and-go congestion patterns. (Author/publisher)
Abstract