Thesis (M.Eng.) - SEATO Graduate School of Engineering

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment if the requirements for the degree of Master of Engineering in the SEATO Graduate School of Engineering, Bangkok, Thailand.

Car-following models have been utilized to study the behaviour of drivers as a consequence of the deceleration to a stop of the car directly ahead. The principal car-following theory employed is based on the reciprocal-spacing alpha function which states that the response of the following car, after a time lag, is a function of the relative speed and the clearance between the leading and following vehicles. The parameters in the car-following equation were evaluated by a series of experiments in which an instrumented vehicle served as the leading vehicle and following vehicles were selected at random from the traffic stream. The time lag associated with the response of the following car was evaluated by a statistical technique. Testing of the validity of the application of the reciprocal-spacing alpha function led to the conclusion that, for the portions of the decelerative run studied, there was a high degree of correlation between stimulus and response as defined in the theory. The phase-plane technique was also applied in the analysis of the data; the results of this analysis, whilst helpful in understanding the mechanics of car-foilowing, were inconclusive.