A new car-following model on complex road considering driver’s characteristics

In order to explore the influence of driver’s characteristics in complex traffic flow, experienced, inexperienced attribution and the perception headway of the driver are introduced. Concurrently, an extended car-following model is established. The linear stability of the extended model is derived based on the control theory method, and obtains the stability conditions. This work verifies the impact of driver characteristics on traffic flow stability based on the open boundary simulation environment. The research results show that inexperienced driver will reduce the stability of traffic flow on complex roads, while experienced driver will improve the stability of traffic flow. Compared with the driver’s negative perception headway error, the positive perception headway error can improve the stability of traffic flow. More specifically, an experienced driver is good at predicting the state of the preceding vehicle, while the driver’s positive perception headway error tends to narrow the safe headway, and achieve the stability of traffic flow.