Driver Dynamics and the Longitudinal Control Model (Paper # 12-0235)

Driver psychology is one of the most difficult phenomena to model in the realm of traffic flow theory because mathematics often cannot ca pture the human factors involved with driving a car. Over the past several decades, many models have attempted to m odel driver aggressiveness with varied results. The recently proposed Longitudinal Contro l Model (LCM) makes such attempt, and this paper offers evidence of the LCM\u27s usefulness in modeling road dynamics by analyzing decel eration rates that are commonly associated with various levels of aggression displayed by drivers. The paper is roughly divided into three sections, one outlining the LCM\u27s ability to quantify fo rces between passive and aggressive drivers on a microscopic level, one describing the LCM\u27s ability to measure aggressiveness of platoons of drivers, and the last explaining the meaning of the model’s derivativ e. The paper references some attempts to capture driver aggressiveness made by classic car-following models, and endeavors to offer some new ideas in study of driver characteristic s and traffic flow theory