Institute of Transportation, MOTC

student：Min-Feng Chiu , 2006.06
Institute of Traffic and Transportation National Chiao Tung University

　　When car accidents occur, traffic often becomes quite congested around the site of the accident with many irregular driving patterns arising. In addition to the congestion on the lane where the accident occurs, the behavior of the drivers on the free flowing lane is closely linked to the slow speed of the through traffic.

　　In this thesis the behavior of the drivers in the lanes other than the one in which the accident occurred will be analyzed through the drivers’ psychological status. In addition, this thesis will use a psychophysical momentum value to describe the drivers’ feeling toward the changed surroundings in order to develop these three car following models. These models can then be applied when car accidents happen on the superhighway. In plain form these models are: 1. The initial stimulus when entering the area where car accident has occurred. 2. The car drivers’ behaviors when they do not see the accident. 3 .Drivers’ behavior when they can see the accident.

　　Afterwards, this thesis will collate and simulate parameters of those models. The simulated results are as follows: 1. When the threshold value of psychophysical momentum of the phase 1 is 0.6, even without the limited headway, the previous car and the following car won’t collide with each other nor brake overly hard. 2. The model explains drivers’ attention or distraction and the ways in which this would affect the speed of the flowing traffic. 3. Phase 3 explains the phenomenon of rubbernecking behavior, with which the traffic speed slows down. 4. The evidence from these models concludes that the drivers’ speed and headway are linear relationship with the simulation of this model.