Mechanics-Based Acceleration Modeling of Multilane Traffic Flow

Inspired by the similarity between vehicle interactions and particle interactions, a mechanical system with force elements is introduced to simulate a vehicle’s acceleration behavior in a multilane traffic flow. On the basis of Newton’s second law of motion, a subject vehicle’s longitudinal behavior is simulated with the interaction force induced by the neighboring vehicles and the driver’s driving preference. Five important factors—(a) subject vehicle’s speed, (b) acceleration sensitivity, (c) safety consideration, (d) relative speed sensitivity, and (e) gap-reducing desire—are considered; each is modeled by a force element. A recently developed data collection system is used to capture the testing driver’s acceleration behavior; the model parameters are calibrated with the traveler’s driving behavior. To demonstrate the present model, a microscopic simulation program was developed with MATLAB. The simulated trajectories not only describe a driver’s acceleration behavior in common scenarios but also accurately present complex, high-order behavior during multifaceted scenarios, such as lane changing or lead gap changing. The present model can be applied to single-lane and multilane car-following scenarios with the same algorithm.