One important cause of the large number of rear end collisions especially in the range of high traffic volumes is the phenomenon of the instability of vehicle platoons. If a vehicle platoon behaves in an unstable mode, the amplitudes of the variations of the distances between the individual vehicles will increase as a result of a change in movement of the vehicle in front (for instance, as a consequence of deceleration) so that this behavior may result in collisions, depending upon the extent of instability. For a family of car following equations the stability characteristics were investigated and stability criteria were set up. These criteria can be used not only to assess the actual distance behavior but also to develop the basic concept of a distance warning indicator. (a) for the covering abstract of the symposium please see irrd abstract no. 224453.
Samenvatting