This commentary on Brackstone and McDonald's (see ITRD E104802) historical review of car-following models focuses primarily on five issues: (i) Why has so much effort been devoted to car-following models? (ii) What assumptions do car-following models make about driver behavior? (iii) What factors influence car-following? (iv) What improvements can be made to car-following models? and (v) Do we need a 'normative' model of driver behavior? The review concludes that differences between the approaches of traffic engineers and traffic psychologists to activities such as car-following have not led to a common understanding of behavior, which is required if the challenge of anticipating how people will drive in other circumstances with different in-car systems is to be successfully overcome. (Author/publisher).
Abstract