The manner in which vehicles follow each other on a highway (without passing) and the propagation disturbances down a line of vehicles has been investigated. Experimental data is presented which indicates that the acceleration at time t of a car which is attempting to follow a leader is proportional to the difference in velocity of the two cars at a time (t-delta), delta being about 1.5 seconds and the proportionality constant being about 0.37/second. It is shown theoretically that the motion of a long line of vehicles becomes unstable when the product of the lag time and the proportionality constant exceeds one-half. The experimental data implies that driving is done on the verge of instability. A variety of other laws of following is analysed theoretically. (Author/publisher)
Samenvatting