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Title:

Prediction and Field Validation of Traffic Oscillation Propagation Under Nonlinear Car-Following Laws

Accession Number:

01364032

Record Type:

Component

Abstract:

A recent study (Li and Ouyang, 2011) proposed a describing-function approach (DFA) to analytically predict oscillation propagation properties (i.e., dominating frequency and amplitude growth) for a general class of nonlinear car-following laws. This paper improves the DFA and proposes a systematic framework to validate the improved approach using observed vehicle trajectory data. A set of empirical measures are defined to extract traffic steady-state properties and oscillation characteristics from vehicle trajectory data. A frequency-domain calibration approach based on the improved DFA is developed to construct a proper nonlinear car-following law that fits these empirical measurements. The analytical DFA predictions of oscillation propagation patterns of the calibrated car-following law are then compared with (i) the observed oscillation properties, and (ii) the simulated oscillation characteristics from the same car-following law. Empirical experiments with real-world trajectory data show that the prediction, the simulation, and the field observation typically match very nicely. This not only validates the analytical prediction approach in the previous study, but also shows that the framework proposed in this paper is capable of calibrating a realistic nonlinear car-following law that reproduces the observed oscillation propagation phenomenon. The proposed modeling method also brings theoretical analyses and empirical observations into one integrated framework that potentially lays the foundation to understand how nonlinearities in a car-following law affect traffic oscillation evolution, and develop possible counteracting strategies.

Supplemental Notes:

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AHB45 Traffic Flow Theory and Characteristics

Monograph Accession #:

01362476

Report/Paper Numbers:

12-1866

Language:

English

Corporate Authors:

Transportation Research Board

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Authors:

Li, Xiaopeng
Wang, Xin
Ouyang, Yanfeng

Pagination:

20p

Publication Date:

2012

Conference:

Transportation Research Board 91st Annual Meeting

Location: Washington DC, United States
Date: 2012-1-22 to 2012-1-26
Sponsors: Transportation Research Board

Media Type:

Digital/other

Features:

Figures; References

Subject Areas:

Data and Information Technology; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; I71: Traffic Theory; I73: Traffic Control

Source Data:

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2012 Paper #12-1866

Files:

TRIS, TRB

Created Date:

Feb 8 2012 5:06PM