Comparison of Car-Following Behavior in Terms of Safety Indicators Between China and Sweden

Journal article, 2020

Understanding car-following behavior in different countries is essential for the design and development of autonomous driving and further development of active safety systems that can function well worldwide, in particular, in mixed traffic conditions. However, very few studies exist that compare car-following behaviors in different countries based on real driving data. This paper analyses the similarities and differences of drivers’ car-following behavior, in terms of time gap, gap distance, and time to collision (TTC), using both China and Sweden datasets from real road driving studies, in a bid to identify how these indicators affect drivers’ speed control in car-following situations. The results indicate that the highest frequency of gap distance is observed in the same value range in both datasets, while the highest frequency of time gap in the Sweden dataset is found at a lower value range than the corresponding value range in the China dataset. For both datasets, time gap is observed to be a more reliable indicator for car-following analysis than gap distance since it is less sensitive to speed variations. Furthermore, TTC in the low travel speed ranges (v < 50 km/h) tends to be steady in comparison with the TTC at other speed ranges, so the time gap in the high-speed ranges is (v > 90 km/h). Therefore, time gap is recommended as the safety indicator for car-following analysis in high-speed conditions, while a combination of time gap and TTC is recommended for low-speed conditions, especially on urban roads.