Modelling heavy vehicle car-following behaviour in congested traffic conditions

Abstract

This study develops a car-following model in which heavy vehicle behaviour is predicted separately from passenger car. Heavy vehicles have different characteristics and manoeuvrability compared with passenger cars. These differences could create problems in freeway operations and safety under congested traffic conditions (level of service E and F) particularly when there is high proportion of heavy vehicles. With increasing numbers of heavy vehicles in the traffic stream, model estimates of the traffic flow could be degrades because existing car-following models do not differentiate between these vehicles and passenger cars. This study highlighted some of the differences in car-following beh..