Impact of the Time-Variant Response Time of Driver on Traffic Flow Oscillations and Car-Following Safety

Empirical results show that the occurrence of traffic congestion can be reduced by optimizing the behavior characteristics of drivers. Response time of driver plays a major role in driving behavior due to the time needed by drivers in sensing velocity and position variations of other vehicles. Therefore, we employed a desired safety margin model to investigate the impact of the time-variant response time of driver (TRTD) on traffic flow oscillations. Safety margin indicators (SM) are used to analyze impact of the TRTD on car-following safety when an external disturbance is introduced in the platoon. The results reveal that the TRTD leads to traffic flow oscillations and is not conducive to the car-following safety. Therefore, it further imply that improving traffic flow and reducing rear-end collisions that considers avoiding the disturbance and removing the white noise in the vehicular communication of the ACC system.