Traffic Simulation Modelling of Rural Roads

and Driver Assistance Systems

Andreas Tapani

Norrkoping 2008

Traffic Simulation Modelling of Rural Roads

and Driver Assistance Systems
Andreas Tapani
Linkoping studies in science and technology. Dissertations, No. 1211
c 2008 Andreas Tapani, unless otherwise noted
Copyright
ISBN 978-91-7393-806-8

ISSN 0345-7524

Printed by LiU-Tryck, Linkoping 2008

Abstract
Microscopic traffic simulation has proven to be a useful tool for analysis
of various traffic systems. This thesis consider microscopic traffic simulation of rural roads and the use of traffic simulation for evaluation of
driver assistance systems.
A traffic simulation modelling framework for rural roads, the Rural Traffic Simulator (RuTSim), is developed. RuTSim is designed for
simulation of traffic on single carriageway two-lane rural roads and on
rural roads with separated oncoming traffic lanes. The simulated traffic
may be interrupted by vehicles entering and leaving the modelled road
at intersections or roundabouts.
The RuTSim model is applied for analysis of rural road design alternatives. Quality-of-service effects of three alternatives for oncoming lane
separation of an existing Swedish two-lane road are analysed. In another
model application, RuTSim is used to simulate traffic on a Dutch twolane rural road. This application illustrates that the high level of model
detail of traffic micro-simulation may call for use of different modelling
assumptions regarding driver behaviour for different applications, e. g.
for simulation of traffic in different cultural regions.
The use of traffic simulation for studies of driver assistance systems
facilitate impact analyses already at early stages of the system development. New and additional requirements are however then placed on
the traffic simulation model. It is necessary to model both the system
functionality of the considered driver assistance system and the driver
behaviour in system equipped vehicles. Such requirements can be analysed using RuTSim.
In this thesis, requirements on a traffic simulation model to be used
for analysis of road safety effects of driver assistance systems are formulated and investigated using RuTSim. RuTSim is also applied for
analyses of centre line rumble strips on two-lane roads, of an overtaking
assistant and of adaptive cruise control. These studies establish that
the assumptions made regarding driver behaviour are crucial for traffic
simulation based analyses of driver assistance systems.
iii

Popul
arvetenskaplig sammanfattning
Trafiksimulering ar ett anvandbart verktyg for att utvardera olika forslag
till forandringar i vagtrafiksystemet. Till exempel kan vagutformningsalternativ, nya vagstrackningar eller trafikregleringar vagas mot varandra med hjalp av trafiksimulering. En trafiksimuleringsmodell beskriver
trafikens rorelse i ett trafiksystem best
aende av ett vagnat med tillhorande trafik. De modeller som utvecklats och studerats inom ramen
for detta avhandlingsarbete ar mikroskopiska trafiksimuleringsmodeller
vilka beskriver samspelet mellan enskilda fordon i trafiken och mellan
fordon och infrastrukturen. En mikroskopisk trafiksimuleringsmodell
best
ar av delmodeller som beskriver olika delar av forar- och fordonsbeteendet. Till exempel styrs interaktionen mellan fordon i samma
korfalt av en fordonsfoljandemodell och korfaltsbyten kontrolleras av
en korfaltsbytesmodell.
En trafiksimuleringsmodell for landsvagstrafik, RuTSim, har utvecklats inom avhandlingsarbetet. Modellen beskriver trafik p
a tv
afaltsvagar
samt motesfria landsvagar, d.v.s. vagar med vajerracke mellan motande
korfalt. RuTSim har redan kommit till praktisk nytta, bland annat for
att ta fram beslutsunderlag infor byggnationer av motesfria landsvagar.
Dagens fordon blir allt mera avancerade, utrustning s
asom adaptiva farth
allare och kollisionsvarningssystem har till exempel blivit allt
vanligare. For att sakerstalla att dessa forarstod leder till avsedda effekter, t.ex. f
orbattrad framkomlighet, trafiksakerhet eller miljo, m
aste
systemen utvarderas. Trafiksimulering mojliggor utvardering av effekter av forarstod redan i tidiga skeden av systemutvecklingen. Denna
tillampning staller dock nya krav p
a trafiksimuleringen.
Trafiksimulering for utvardering av forarstod behandlas ocks
a i avhandlingen. De krav som stalls p
a trafiksimuleringsmodeller som ska
anvandas for utvardering av trafiksakerhetseffekter av forarstod undersoks med hj
alp av RuTSim. RuTSim anvands ocks
a for analyser av
rafflor i vagmitt p
a tv
afaltsvagar, ett omkorningsstod och adaptiva farth
allare. Dessa studier visar att modelleringen av forarbeteende ar avgorande for resultaten av trafiksimuleringsbaserade analyser av forarstod.
v

Acknowledgements
This thesis is a result of research carried out at the Swedish National
Road and Transport Research Institute (VTI) and the division of Communications and Transport Systems at Linkoping University. The Swedish Road Administration has sponsored the research through the Swedish
Network of Excellence Transport Telematics Sweden.
Needless to say, this work would never have been completed without
the support of my supervisor Jan Lundgren. He has guided me through
all parts of the maze of PhD studies. I am also grateful to Pontus
Matstoms for introducing me to the field of traffic modelling and simulation and to Arne Carlsson for sharing his extensive knowledge in traffic
engineering. Thanks also to Andras Varhelyi, who has kindly read and
commented on my work.
My colleagues at VTI and the division of Communications and Transport Systems are sincerely acknowledged. They have provided both the
room for discussion and the distraction needed for successful work. My
roommate Johan Janson Olstam has become a good friend.
I would also like to thank Geertje Hegeman, Serge Hoogendoorn and
Henk van Zuylen for inviting me to come and work in their group at
Delft University of Technology. I had a really good time in Delft and
Geertjes contagious enthusiasm will stay with me for a long time.
Finally, if it wasnt for the support of my family and friends, I would
not have come this far. Last but not least, Erika, thanks for always
being there.
Norrkoping, August 2008
Andreas Tapani

vii

Contents
1 Introduction

2 Rural road traffic simulation

2.1 Introduction to traffic simulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
2.2 Traffic simulation models for rural roads . . . . . . . . . .

3
3
6

3 Driver assistance systems

9
3.1 Examples of driver assistance systems . . . . . . . . . . . 9
3.2 Evaluation of driver assistance systems . . . . . . . . . . . 11
4 The
4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
4.5

present thesis
Objectives . . . . .
Contributions . . .
Delimitations . . .
Summary of papers
Future research . .

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ix

Introduction

Road traffic is continuously changing in nature. New vehicle and infrastructure technology creates new traffic conditions. At the moment, Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are becoming an increasingly important element in the traffic system. ITS can be described as telecommunications, computer and automatic control systems that interact with
the vehicles in the traffic system and provide support for a more efficient
utilisation of the available resources. Examples of ITS include applications for traffic management, traveller information, public transport,
logistics and driver assistance.
The main motivation for changes and standard improvements in the
traffic system has traditionally been to increase capacity and the qualityof-service, i. e. to allow increased speed and to reduce the time spent
queueing. Today more attention is turning towards other issues such as
road safety and the environmental impact of traffic. To remedy congestion, safety and pollution problems, it is important that the measures
taken provide real benefits. In addition, scarce resources require prioritisation among alternatives. Impact assessments of proposed changes in
the traffic system are therefore necessary. Traffic simulation models that
describe operations in a traffic system has proven to be of use for such
analyses.
ITS increase the complexity of the interactions between individual
vehicles and the surrounding traffic and between vehicles and the infrastructure. Simulation is a powerful method for studies of complex
systems. Traffic simulation is therefore likely to become more essential
in studies of all road traffic systems.
Many traffic simulation studies of the design of urban street networks
and motorway operations have been performed. The road mileage is
however in most countries dominated by rural roads (European Union
Road Federation, 2007). So far, the use of traffic simulation for rural
roads has not increased as much as the use of simulation for other road
types. Todays growing awareness of issues such as road safety and the
environment has however brought an increasing interest in the perfor1

1. INTRODUCTION

mance of rural roads. Since traffic simulation has proven to be a useful

tool for other road environments there is also a potential to use traffic
simulation for rural roads to a greater extent than today. In addition, to
account for the ever changing traffic system there is a need for flexible
simulation models capable of describing effects of the ITS-applications
of today and of the future.
This thesis consider microscopic traffic simulation modelling of rural roads and the use of traffic simulation as a tool for evaluation of
driver assistance systems. Various aspects of this wide area are covered by the papers that are included in this thesis. A traffic simulation
modelling framework for rural roads is developed and applied for rural
road design analysis. Issues in relation to the application of detailed
traffic micro-simulation models are explored and requirements imposed
on traffic simulation models to be used for analysis of driver assistance
systems are analysed.
The remainder of this thesis is organised as follows. An introduction
to traffic simulation is given in Chapter 2. This chapter is completed
by a presentation of the state-of-the-art in rural road traffic simulation.
Chapter 3 gives an overview of driver assistance systems. Evaluation
of the effects of driver assistance systems is also discussed. Chapters 2
and 3 enlighten the research needs that motivated the work described
in the papers included in this thesis. The objectives, contributions and
delimitations of this work are discussed in Chapter 4. Paper summaries
and suggestions for further research are also included in this chapter.
Finally, seven papers are included in the back of the thesis.

Rural road traffic simulation

Simulation is a powerful and versatile technique. This chapter provides

an introduction to traffic simulation in general and microscopic rural
road traffic simulation in particular.

2.1

Introduction to traffic simulation

A simulation model is a mathematical representation of a dynamic system that can be used to draw conclusions about the properties of the real
system. Time is the basic independent variable of a simulation model.
In computer implementations of simulation models, the model state
is updated at discrete times. A simulation model can either apply a
time-based scanning approach, in which the model is updated at regular
intervals, or an event-based approach, in which the model is updated
at the points in time where the state of the system is changing. Eventbased updating is less computer resource demanding as the simulation
model is updated more sparsely than in a time-based model with equal
accuracy. Event-based simulation does however imply calculation of the
next change in the state of the model after each update. This procedure
becomes very complicated for complex systems including many entities
that change state frequently. Event-based simulation is consequently
more appropriate for systems of limited size and for systems in which
the entities change state infrequently. Time-based scanning is considered
to be appropriate for systems including large numbers of entities with
frequently changing states.
Simulation models may be either deterministic or stochastic. Deterministic simulation models do not include any randomness and are
therefore appropriate for systems with little or no random variation.
Stochastic simulation models make use of statistical distributions for
some of the model parameters to reproduce the variability of the real
system. The result of a model run of a stochastic model will consequently differ depending on the realisation of the random numbers that
3

2. RURAL ROAD TRAFFIC SIMULATION

are used to determine parameter values in the model.

Simulation was first applied to road traffic in the early 1950s (May,
1990). Traffic simulation models are designed to mimic the time evolving
traffic operations in a road network. Todays traffic simulation models
commonly apply a time-based scanning simulation approach. Some early
traffic simulation models applied an event-based approach due to the
limited computer power available before the 1980s. Since there is a
vast number of events of different types in a traffic system, the event
based simulation models included very simple traffic descriptions. This
restricted the applicability of the models and the event-based approach
was largely abandoned as faster computers became available. There has
however been recent interest in event-based traffic simulation due to the
computation time requirements imposed on simulation models applied
for dynamic traffic assignment (Florian et al., 2006).
Both deterministic and stochastic traffic simulation models have
been developed. Since traffic includes a non-negligible amount of randomness, the deterministic simulation models can be viewed as representations of the average traffic state. One run of a stochastic traffic
simulation model is in contrast a representation of the traffic states during a time period corresponding to the length of the simulation run.
The average traffic conditions can be estimated using a stochastic traffic
simulation model by conducting multiple simulation runs with different
random number realisations.
A traffic simulation model consists of the representation of the road
network together with the traffic in the network representing the supply
and demand sides of the traffic system, respectively. The road network
includes both the actual infrastructure and the traffic control systems.
The traffic demand is commonly specified by an origin-destination matrix which specifies the number of trips per time unit between all origins
and destinations in the traffic network during the time period that is to
be simulated.
Traffic simulation models are often classified with respect to the level
of modelling detail. Macroscopic, microscopic and mesoscopic models
are commonly used classifications. Macroscopic simulation models use
entities such as average speed, flow and density to describe traffic or, in
other words, traffic conditions is in a macroscopic model governed by
the fundamental relationship between flow, speed and density. Macroscopic simulation models are capable of modeling large traffic networks
due to this aggregated treatment of traffic. The common application of
4

2.1. INTRODUCTION TO TRAFFIC SIMULATION

macroscopic simulation models is for this reason analysis of traffic operations covering large urban areas and freeway networks. Examples of
macroscopic traffic simulation models are the Cell Transmission Model
(Daganzo, 1994, 1995) and METANET (Messmer and Papageorgiou,
1990). The macroscopic modelling approach makes it difficult to describe the consequences of elements in the traffic system that have an
impact on individual vehicles, or properties that depend on individual
vehicle behaviour. For example, studies of motorway weaving sections,
highway passing lanes and some ITS-applications are difficult to conduct
with a macroscopic model.
Microscopic simulation models consider individual driver and vehicle units in the traffic stream. During a simulation run, vehicles are
moved through the network on the paths between the vehicles origin
and destination. Interactions between individual vehicles and between
vehicles and the infrastructure are modelled during this process through
equations designed to mimic real driver behaviour. These equations are
commonly organised into sub-models that handle specific parts of the
driving task. Car-following and lane-changing models are examples of
sub-models. A car-following model controls a simulated vehicles interactions with vehicles in front in the same lane and lane-changing decisions
are governed by a lane-changing model. The most common application
of traffic micro-simulation is quality-of-service studies of specific locations in urban street or motorway networks. A majority of the microsimulation models are also developed for these road environments (ITS
Leeds, 2000). The use of traffic micro-simulation for safety assessments
and pollutant emission estimation is also explored concurrently with the
growing awareness of road safety and the environment. The potential
of traffic simulation based road safety analysis were for example investigated by Minderhoud and Bovy (2001), Barcelo et al. (2003) and Archer
(2005). The works of Liu and Tate (2004) and Panis et al. (2006) are
examples of micro-simulation based environmental impact analysis. ITS
developed to support individual vehicles in the traffic stream can also be
studied using micro-simulation. Examples of micro-simulation models
are MITSIM (Yang, 1997), VISSIM (PTV, 2008), AIMSUN (TSS, 2008)
and Paramics (Quadstone Paramics, 2008) for urban and motorway environments and TRARR (Hoban et al., 1991), TWOPAS (McLean, 1989)
and VTISim (Brodin and Carlsson, 1986) for rural road environments.
The detailed traffic description in a micro-simulation model leads to resource demanding calibration and long simulation model run times for
5

2. RURAL ROAD TRAFFIC SIMULATION

large networks. Microscopic models are consequently considered to be

appropriate for networks of limited size.
The third class of traffic simulation models are the mesoscopic models. The level-of-detail used in these models is in between the low detail
of the macroscopic models and the high detail of the microscopic models. One utilised modelling approach is for example to model individual
vehicle movements, as in a microscopic model, using speed-flow relationships, as in a macroscopic model. Mesoscopic modelling approaches
allow simulation of larger networks than with microscopic models with
more accuracy than what is possible to obtain by using a macroscopic
model. An application where this property is of particular importance
is dynamic traffic assignment. Examples of mesoscopic traffic simulation models are CONTRAM (Taylor, 2003), DYNAMEQ (Florian et al.,
2006) and MEZZO (Burghout, 2004).
The models developed and studied in the work presented in this
thesis are stochastic microscopic traffic simulation models. Traffic simulation will therefore henceforth be used as an abbreviation of traffic
micro-simulation.

2.2

Traffic simulation models for rural roads

A microscopic traffic simulation model uses equations designed to mimic

real driving behaviour to move individual vehicles through the simulated
road network. Since traffic is modelled with this level-of-detail, different
road environments will place different requirements on the simulation
models. The requirements on a model used to simulate the traffic flow
on a rural road are, for example, substantially different from the requirements on a model used for traffic in an urban or freeway network. This
difference is due to fundamental differences in the interactions between
vehicles and the infrastructure. The travel time delay in an urban or
freeway network is dominated by vehicle-vehicle interactions, whereas
the travel time delay on a rural road is also significantly influenced by
interactions between vehicles and the infrastructure. For example, speed
adaptation with respect to the road geometry has a more prominent role
on rural roads than it has on urban streets. A model describing traffic
flows on rural roads must therefore consider the interaction between vehicles and the infrastructure in greater detail than models for urban or
freeway traffic. Interactions between vehicles are nevertheless important
on rural roads, particularly in overtaking and passing situations.
6

2.2. TRAFFIC SIMULATION MODELS FOR RURAL ROADS

This section reviews the state-of-the-art in rural road traffic simulation. The interest in rural road traffic simulation began in the 1960s.
Among the first to attempt to simulate two-lane road traffic were Shumate and Dirksen in 1964 and Warnshuis in 1967 (McLean, 1989). These
early attempts were however limited by the computing power available
in the 1960s. The 1970s brought an increasing interest in rural road
traffic simulation. Programming languages more suitable for simulation
and more powerful computers made it possible to construct models with
the detail needed to simulate the traffic on two-lane rural roads. Since
the 1970s most modeling efforts have been focused on urban or motorway traffic. As a consequence, the current position of rural road traffic
simulation is not far from the position of the early 1980s. The recent
works of Kim and Elefteriadou (2007) and Brilon and Weiser (2006) does
however indicate the remaining relevance of two-lane road traffic simulation. The main applications of rural road traffic simulation models
have been studies of traffic conditions due to changes in road alignment,
cross-section design and traffic composition and volume.
Examples of models for rural road traffic simulation includes the
Traffic on Rural Roads (TRARR) model developed by the Australian
Road Research Board (Hoban et al., 1991), the Two-Lane Passing
(TWOPAS) model originally developed by the Midwest Research Institute (McLean, 1989) and the model developed by the Swedish National
Road and Transport Research Institute (VTISim) (Brodin and Carlsson,
1986). A recently developed model is the TWO-Lane two-way highway SIMulator (TWOSIM) presented by Kim and Elefteriadou (2007).
TWOSIM was developed specifically for capacity estimation of two-lane
roads.
The development of the TRARR, TWOPAS and VTISim models
started before fast and powerful personal computers became available.
All three of the models bear traces of the prioritising that had to be
made to run a traffic micro-simulation model using the computers of the
1970s. VTISim applies an event-based simulation approach that is very
efficient from a computer resource perspective but modeling of complex
traffic interactions is difficult. TRARR and TWOPAS are time-based
simulation models with a fixed time step of 1 s. This may be sufficient for
quality-of-service studies of two-lane roads. Kim and Elefteriadou (2007)
stated that the early models are not applicable for capacity estimation.
Moreover, new applications such as evaluation of ITS and simulation
based road safety and environmental impact assessments require a rural
7

2. RURAL ROAD TRAFFIC SIMULATION

road simulation model with a more detailed simulation approach.

The focus of the modelling efforts has been on speed adaptation
with respect to the road geometry and on the modelling of overtaking
decisions. The state-of-the-art in these modelling areas is consequently
relatively well developed. However, TRARR, TWOPAS and VTISim
apply different speed adaptation and overtaking logic. Calibration and
validation of the speed adaptation and overtaking models for different
rural road environments followed by a model comparison is needed to
distinguish differences in the models abilities to reproduce different traffic conditions.
None of the early rural road simulation models consider the effects of
intersections or roundabouts on the traffic on the main road. This limitation was also identified by Kim and Elefteriadou (2007) and TWOSIM
was therefore developed to handle intersections along the simulated road.
Nor do the early models handle new rural road types such as roads with
separated oncoming traffic lanes. There is empirical evidence that the
traffic flow is different on two-lane road sections without oncoming traffic
than on two-lane roads with auxiliary overtaking/passing lanes (Carlsson and Br
ude, 2005). Models for auxiliary overtaking/passing lanes are
therefore not applicable to roads with separated oncoming lanes.
In summary, there is a need for a rural road simulation model that
handles all types of rural roads including roads with separated oncoming
traffic lanes. The effects of rural intersections should also be taken into
account. Moreover, new traffic simulation applications such as ITS evaluations, road safety assessments and studies of the environmental impact
of traffic, require a versatile and detailed simulation model. Since new
ITS are constantly developed and the characteristics of the traffic system
is continuously changing, a traffic simulation model should be designed
to allow adaptation to the current traffic conditions.

Driver assistance systems

Driver assistance systems are in-vehicle technologies that give support

to various aspects of the driving task. The systems considered in this
thesis are commonly described as Advanced Driver Assistance Systems
(ADAS). ADAS is one category of ITS that is expected to have substantial impact on future road traffic (Berghout et al., 2003). This chapter
gives an overview of ADAS. The ADAS related papers included in this
thesis consider the use of traffic simulation for analysis of the traffic
system impacts of ADAS. An introduction to evaluation of ADAS is
therefore included in the presentation.

3.1

Examples of driver assistance systems

ADAS is used to describe a diverse group of in-vehicle support systems

that can be viewed as intermediate steps towards a fully automated
road traffic system. Even though fully automated roads are possible to
achieve using todays technology, cf. Thorpe et al. (1997), it is still considered to be a Utopia. The driver will, for the foreseeable future, remain
as an essential part of the driving process. Examples of ADAS include
systems from adaptive cruise control, intelligent speed adaptation and
lane departure warning to driver vigilance monitoring, pre-crash vehicle
preparation and parking aid. Thorough listings of available ADAS and
systems under research and development are given by Oei et al. (2002),
Floudas et al. (2005) and Technical Research Centre of Finland (2005).
Currently available ADAS are autonomous systems. Co-operative systems based on vehicle-to-vehicle communication are expected to be introduced in the future (Ehmanns and Spannheimer, 2004).
The conclusion to be drawn from the literature is that ADAS include
very different types of functions. It is consequently useful to categorise
ADAS into different groups suitable for the current context. A technology based classification according to the enabling technologies of the
ADAS can be useful for system specification and development. Exam9

3. DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEMS

ples of ADAS enabling technologies are laser, radar and video based
sensors and wireless communication techniques suitable for vehicle-tovehicle and vehicleinfrastructure communication. Examples of systems
based on radar and/or laser sensors include adaptive cruise control that
extends the functionality of fixed speed cruise control with car-following
distance keeping, rear-end collision warning that warns in case of potential collisions and parking aid that keeps track of adjacent vehicles
and assists during parking manoeuvres. Examples of systems based
on vehicle-to-vehicle communication are intersection collision avoidance
systems that detect potential collisions in intersections and overtaking
assistance that gives advise on overtaking opportunities on two-lane
roads. Systems that rely on communication and road network positioning are for example intelligent speed adaptation that guides drivers
towards keeping the posted speed limit and post-crash alerting that notifies the rescue service in case of an accident.
In a road safety context, Oei et al. (2002) classified ADAS according
to which phase of the accident process that the systems give support
in. Systems were determined as either pre-crash, crash or post-crash
support systems. Systems that give support during normal driving were
classified as pre-crash systems. Examples of pre-crash systems include all
of the examples given for the technology based classification except postcrash alerting which for obvious reasons is categorised as a post-crash
support system. Crash support systems are systems that pre-activate
the vehicles safety systems before an un-avoidable accident, e. g. systems
that pre-inflate airbags for maximum protection.
A functional classification of ADAS is commonly applied for studies
of driver behaviour in relation to the systems. This categorisation is
based on grouping criteria that take into account which type of driver
and which part of the driving task that the systems give support to. Michons hierarchical control model, see e. g. the review by Ranney (1994),
that divides driving into strategic, tactical and operational tasks were
for example used by Oei et al. (2002) to categorise ADAS. Strategic
driving tasks involves tasks related to navigation and route choice. Examples of systems that support strategic driving tasks are systems that
give information of conditions along the drivers desired route. Tactical driving tasks are overtaking, lane-changing, intersection negotiation
and car-following. Many ADAS support tactical driving tasks. Examples include adaptive crusie control, intelligent speed adaptation and
lane-change collision avoidance that detect vehicles in the blind spot.
10

3.2. EVALUATION OF DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEMS

Operational driving tasks are the basic vehicle handling. ADAS that
support operational driving tasks are for example vision enhancement
systems that support driving in poor visibility conditions and road surface monitoring systems that give information of e. g. low road friction.
Categorisation of ADAS into longitudinal and lateral control systems
is another example of a functional ADAS classification. Longitudinal
control systems include for example intelligent speed adaptation and
adaptive cruise control. Lateral control ADAS are e. g. lane-change collision avoidance and lane/road departure warning systems.
Golias et al. (2002) introduced an ADAS categorisation according
to the potential system impacts. Criteria for road safety and traffic
efficiency impacts were used to categorise a set of ADAS. Systems that
scored high on both road safety and traffic efficiency were road surface
monitoring, adaptive cruise control and lane-change collision avoidance.
An impact oriented ADAS categorisation is useful to prioritise among
ADAS and to allocate resources to the most promising alternatives.
Most research and development efforts related to ADAS have been
focused on enabling technologies and human machine interfaces. This
is natural since the driving force behind introductions of ADAS come
from vehicle manufacturers and the demand of their customers. However, from societys perspective, to increase traffic safety and to remedy congestion and pollution problems, it is important that ADAS lead
to real benefits. Scarce resources require prioritisation and as a consequence ADAS need to be evaluated already at early development stages.
Evaluation of ADAS is discussed in the following section.

3.2

Evaluation of driver assistance systems

To assess impacts of already well-tried measures to improve the traffic system, one can conduct before and after studies or cross-sectional
studies based on field data. Road safety analysis of traditional safety
measures can for example be conducted based on the actual accident
turn out. New technologies such as ADAS can however not be reliably
evaluated based only on field data. Even though some ADAS already
have been introduced in the traffic system, the proportion of equipped
to unequipped vehicles is still too small for conclusions to be drawn.
Instead, evaluations of ADAS have to be based on laboratory studies
and modelling.
As presented in the previous section, the driver will for the foresee11

3. DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEMS

able future remain as an essential part of the driving process. There

are several reasons for this, one non-negligible factor is that people are
not willing to hand over the responsibility of driving to the vehicle. This
conclusion can be drawn from the results of acceptance studies of ADAS
which often show higher acceptance of purely information systems than
of systems that take over control of parts of the driving task (Brookhuis
et al., 2001). Consequently, driver behaviour is, and will remain, crucial
for successful introductions of ADAS in the road traffic system. It is
therefore appropriate to start evaluations of ADAS with the systems
impact on driver behaviour.
The tools used for studying the systems impact on individual driver
behaviour have in common that they consider test drivers behaviour in
a laboratory situation. Since the ADAS under consideration can be assumed not to be widely available in the traffic system it is not possible to
measure data directly in the field. However, if test persons are allowed
to drive an ADAS-equipped vehicle in real traffic then it is still possible
to observe the test persons behaviour under real traffic conditions. A
drawback of this approach is that it is not possible to control the traffic
situations that the test person is exposed to. An alternative approach
is to implement the ADAS system functionality in a driving simulator.
This approach has the advantage that it is possible to control the traffic
situation completely. Possible drawbacks of the driving simulator approach concern the realism and validity of the simulator. There are also
other alternatives for studying driver behaviour, e. g. stated preference
methods.
Knowledge of the impact of ADAS on driver behaviour can be sufficient to enable system design for improved driver comfort. However,
in order to evaluate the systems potential to remedy road safety, traffic flow quality-of-service and environmental issues, it is necessary to
aggregate the effects on individual driver behaviour to the traffic system level. This aggregation relies on modelling and estimation of the
effects of the ADAS under different traffic conditions, on different road
types and in traffic including different proportions of ADAS-equipped
vehicles. Traffic simulation models which describe conditions in a traffic
network given the properties of the road network and the traffic demand
are useful for such analyses. Microscopic traffic simulation models consider individual vehicles in the traffic stream. It is therefore possible
to include ADAS functionality and ADAS induced driver behaviour in
the driver/vehicle sub-models of the simulation. This makes it possible
12

3.2. EVALUATION OF DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEMS

to estimate the effects of ADAS on the traffic system through traffic

simulation experiments.
The traffic simulation approach is appropriate for ADAS functions
which have an impact on the driver/vehicle units interactions with surrounding vehicles and with the infrastructure during normal driving.
Examples of such ADAS functions include speed and distance keeping
support and overtaking assistance. Traffic simulation is however not
a useful tool for other ADAS functions developed primarily to remedy
driver errors in critical situations. Examples of such functions are driver
monitoring and pre-crash preparation systems.
Traffic simulation based evaluations of ADAS have been performed
by several authors. Hogema (1999) developed a driver model for microscopic traffic simulation including vehicles equipped with Adaptive
Cruise Control (ACC). The driver model included not only driving with
the ACC active but also the tasks of engaging and disengaging the ACC.
Driving with ACC and normal driving was modelled using distance controllers with different desired headway functions.
Minderhoud and Bovy (1999) studied the impact of ACC on motorway capacity using traffic simulation. ACC was in this study modelled
by assuming a shorter reaction delay for ACC-equipped vehicles than for
standard vehicles. The results showed that the ACC headway setting
has a large influence on the achievable motorway capacity. The impact
of ACC on time-to-collision based safety indicators were studied by the
same authors in 2001. Results of this study indicated that some ACC
designs were more safety critical than the studied reference case without
these systems.
ACC was also considered by Davis (2004, 2007). Davis modelled
ACC as a distance controller without delay. A car-following model including a reaction delay was used to model standard vehicles in the
simulated traffic. The first study considered jam formation in motorway
traffic with varying proportions of ACC-equipped vehicles. The results
showed that jams could be suppressed by introduction of 20 % ACCvehicles in the simulated traffic. The second study considered ACC
extended with co-operative merging functionality. During merging situations, the ACC controller took into account both the vehicle in front
in the equipped vehicles own lane and in the adjacent lane. It was
shown that the throughput of traffic with 100 % vehicles equipped with
ACC and co-operative merging is limited only by the speed limit and
the selected ACC headway.
13

3. DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEMS

The jam suppressing potential of ACC was also investigated by Kesting et al. (2007a, 2007b). In these studies, the same model was used for
both ACC-equipped and standard vehicles. Jam-avoiding ACC-vehicles
were modelled by modification of the model parameters. The simulation results showed that already a low proportion of jam-avoiding ACCvehicles could improve traffic performance and reduce congestion.
Effects of a co-operative following (CF) system closely related to
ACC was studied by van Arem et al. (2006). This system can be described as an ACC system based on vehicle-to-vehicle communication.
The use of inter-vehicle communication make it possible for equipped
vehicles to travel closer together than non-equipped vehicles or vehicles
equipped with a standard autonomous ACC system. The CF system
was modelled as a distance controller without reaction delay and CFvehicles were assigned a short desired following headway. The simulation
results showed that introduction of a CF system can reduce the number
of shock waves in traffic with a large proportion of CF-vehicles.
A similar CF system was studied by Liu et al. (2006). This study
considered the impact on safety caused by information delay in the CF
system. Car-following models with different reaction delays were used to
model information delay in the CF system and time-to-collision based
safety indicators were used to measure the safety effects. The results
showed that information delay had an impact on the safety indicators.
Alkim et al. (2000) studied the effects of CF and a speed control
system. The speed control system can be viewed as an Intelligent Speed
Adaptation (ISA) system which guides drivers towards keeping an appropriate speed. The simulation results for the speed control system
indicated that both speeds and the number of shock waves can be reduced when a speed control system is introduced.
Hoogendoorn and Minderhoud (2001, 2002) studied impacts of ACC
and ISA on motorway traffic. ACC was in this work modelled using a
distance controller with a short system response time. ISA was modelled by preventing ISA equipped vehicles to exceed the speed limit.
The simulation results indicated that ACC have a potential to improve
motorway bottleneck capacity. Increased variability of the bottleneck
capacity was however also observed. No effects of ISA could be established.
A traffic simulation based evaluation of ISA was also performed by
Liu and Tate (2004). ISA was in this study modelled by reducing the
speed suggested by the car-following model if this speed was higher
14

3.2. EVALUATION OF DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEMS

than the speed limit. The simulation results showed that ISA is more
efficient in less congested traffic. High speeds and the speed variation
was reduced by the ISA system in such conditions.
Another simulation study of ISA was presented by Hoogendoorn and
Louwerse (2005). This study focused on the potential safety effects of
ISA. ISA-equipped vehicles were assumed not to exceed the speed limit
and a constant deceleration rate was used to slow down ISA vehicles
at locations where the speed limit was lowered. The simulation results
showed that ISA reduced average speeds in the simulated road network.
It was therefore concluded that ISA can provide safety benefits.
The impact of fixed speed limiters on motorway traffic was evaluated
by Toledo et al. (2007). The speed limiters were modelled by modification of the desired speed distribution for vehicles in the simulation. The
simulation results show that speed limiters have a potential to reduce
average speeds by 10 %. The speed variability could also be reduced.
A majority of the simulation studies are concerned with traffic flow
quality-of-service and safety effects of longitudinal control ADAS, i. e.
different types of adaptive crusie control and intelligent speed adaptation
systems. Longitudinal control ADAS can be modelled straightforwardly
by modifications of the car-following model of the simulation. Changes
in driver behaviour due to the ADAS are however rarely considered in the
previous studies. Driver behaviour in ADAS equipped vehicles is crucial
for the impacts of ADAS since the driver will remain responsible for
driving his or her vehicle. There is consequently a potential to improve
traffic simulation based evaluations of ADAS by including the driver
behaviour associated with the ADAS in the applied traffic simulation
model. This potential was also recognised by Klunder et al. (2006).
Traffic simulation including driver behaviour in vehicles equipped
with ADAS will place new and additional requirements on the traffic
simulation model. ADAS functions are very diverse. A model to be
used for simulation of traffic including ADAS-equipped vehicles should
therefore allow substitution of its sub-models. The utilised sub-models
should also be flexible enough to allow modelling of the ADAS function and the observed changes in driver behaviour. Sufficiently detailed
modelling of non-equipped vehicles in the traffic stream is a requirement placed on the simulation model if traffic including a combination
of equipped and non-equipped vehicles is to be studied. Some ADAS
can be assumed to have an impact not only on the equipped vehicles
but also on neighbouring non-equipped vehicles. Quantification of such
15

3. DRIVER ASSISTANCE SYSTEMS

effects relies on the accuracy of the modelling of the surrounding nonequipped vehicles. The simulation model should also enable derivation
of suitable performance indicators to allow use of the results for the application at hand. The basic result from a traffic micro-simulation model
run is a set of vehicle trajectories for all vehicles that have traversed the
modelled road network during the simulated time. Many indicators used
for simulation based safety and environmental impact analysis are based
on details of these resulting vehicle trajectories. A requirement imposed
on the simulation model to be used for such analysis is for this reason
access to the resulting vehicle trajectories.

16

The present thesis

The themes of this thesis are microscopic traffic simulation modelling of

rural roads and modelling issues in relation to the use of traffic microsimulation as a method for evaluation of driver assistance systems. Various aspects of these two themes are explored in the included papers. The
objectives, contributions and delimitations of the thesis are discussed in
this chapter. Paper summaries and suggestions for further research are
also given.

4.1

Objectives

One main objective of this work is to develop a traffic simulation modelling framework for rural roads. The aim of this development is that the
developed model should be able to describe traffic conditions on both
single carriageway two-lane roads and on rural roads with separated oncoming traffic lanes. Traffic interrupted by vehicles entering and leaving
at intersections or roundabouts should also be considered.
There is an increasing interest in the performance of rural roads. As
described in Chapter 2, traffic micro-simulation of rural roads is less
studied than traffic simulation of other road types. There is a need for
traffic micro-simulation models that handle common types of rural roads
including the impacts of rural intersections. A traffic micro-simulation
model for rural roads should be designed to allow modelling of ITS and
traffic simulation based road safety and environmental impact analysis.
Another main objective of this work is to investigate issues in relation
to the application of traffic simulation for evaluation of ADAS. This
investigation is focused on the modelling of driver behaviour in traffic
simulations including ADAS-equipped vehicles.
The last decade has, as presented in Chapter 3, brought an interest
in the use of traffic micro-simulation to evaluate traffic system impacts
of driver assistance systems. Simulation of traffic including ADASequipped vehicles will place new and additional requirements on the
17

4. THE PRESENT THESIS

traffic simulation model. These requirements have not yet been thoroughly explored. Driver behavioural adaptations in relation to ADAS
can for example be expected to have important implications for the impacts of ADAS on the traffic system. A link between studies of driver
behaviour and traffic simulation based evaluations of ADAS is however
not established.

4.2

Contributions

This thesis contain the following contributions to the existing research:

A new traffic micro-simulation model for rural roads, The Rural
Traffic Simulator (RuTSim), is developed. RuTSim handles single
carriageway two-lane rural roads and rural roads with separated
oncoming traffic lanes. The traffic on the simulated road may
be interrupted by vehicles entering and leaving at intersections or
roundabouts.
Driver behaviour sub-models for time-based rural road traffic micro-simulation are developed. The developed sub-models control
vehicle accelerations and overtaking manoeuvres.
Quality-of-service effects of different alternatives for oncoming lane
separation of an existing two-lane rural road are analysed using
RuTSim. It was concluded that RuTSim is able to describe traffic
on the existing road and that oncoming lane separation of the road
can be done with only a slight reduction of the quality-of-service.
Insights are gained into model complexity issues that arise when
using detailed micro-simulation approaches. These issues are related to overfitting of statistical models. There is also a risk that
modelling assumptions become in-valid for later applications of the
model.
It is shown that the high level of detail of traffic micro-simulation
models may bring a need to use models based on different assumptions regarding driver behaviour when modelling traffic in different
cultural regions.
A traffic simulation framework for analysis of the impacts of driver
assistance systems on the traffic system is developed. Driver assis18

4.3. DELIMITATIONS

tance system functionalities and changes in driver behaviour due

to driver assistance systems are considered in the framework.
Requirements imposed on traffic simulation models to be applied
for studies of road safety effects of driver assistance systems are
formulated and tested using RuTSim.
It is established that the assumptions made regarding driver behaviour are crucial for traffic simulation based evaluations of driver
assistance systems.
Issues in relation to the application of driver behaviour data collected in driving simulator studies for traffic simulation modelling
are identified. New driving simulator study designs are needed. It
becomes necessary to observe the subjects continuous actions and
reactions while driving.
Traffic system impacts of different types of rumble strips on rural
roads are analysed using RuTSim. Indications of changes in speeds
and safety related indicators were found amongst the simulation
results.
Driver comfort, quality-of-service and safety implications of an
overtaking assistant are analysed using RuTSim. It was found
that the overtaking assistant can provide safety benefits without
having negative consequences for traffic efficiency and driver comfort.
A traffic simulation study of potential vehicle trajectory impacts
of adaptive cruise control has been performed using RuTSim. It is
shown that adaptive cruise control can result in improved conditions in terms of reduced acceleration and deceleration rates even
though the macroscopic traffic situation may remain unchanged.
This result supports the hypothesised positive road safety and environmental effects of adaptive cruise control.

4.3

Delimitations

The traffic simulation modelling framework developed in this thesis is

designed for rural roads. Other road types are not considered. The
model handles one main rural road stretch per simulation, i. e. route
19

4. THE PRESENT THESIS

choice in rural road networks is not modelled. The number of paths

between a specific origindestination pair in a rural road network is
typically very small. Route choice is therefore often of little consequence
for the traffic volume on a rural road. The intersection modelling is
limited to un-signalised intersections. Traffic signals are not considered
since they are rarely used in rural environments. The present work does
not include a complete validation of the developed simulation model for
all rural road types and traffic conditions. Validation of a simulation
model involve modelling of a large number of real world systems. Only
partial model validation is consequently within the scope of this thesis.
Issues in relation to the use of traffic simulation for evaluation of
ADAS are studied through the modelling of rural road traffic using the
developed traffic simulation modelling framework. The findings can however be generalised to traffic on other road types. The main purpose of
the performed simulation studies of example ADAS is to study issues in
relation to the modelling of the ADAS and not to evaluate impacts of
the specific ADAS.

4.4

Summary of papers

There are seven papers included in this thesis. Microscopic traffic simulation modelling of rural roads is considered in Paper IIII and the
use of traffic simulation as a tool for evaluation of ADAS is investigated
in Paper IVVII. Brief summaries of the seven papers are given in this
section. The contributions of the author of this thesis to the papers that
are written together with co-authors are also stated.

Paper I: Versatile Model for Simulation of Rural Road Traffic

The purpose of the work presented in Paper I is to develop a traffic microsimulation model for rural roads. The paper presents the simulation
approach and the traffic modelling used in the developed model, the
Rural Traffic Simulator (RuTSim).
The development of RuTSim is based on the rural road traffic simulation model developed by the Swedish National Road and Transport
Research Institute (VTISim, cf. Chapter 2). VTISim was chosen as a
basis for the development of RuTSim because it has been well validated
for the road conditions in Sweden.
20

4.4. SUMMARY OF PAPERS

RuTSim is a time-based stochastic simulation model capable of modelling single carriageway two-lane rural roads and rural roads with separated oncoming traffic lanes. The model consist of sub-models that
handle specific tasks. The use of sub-models simplifies future modification of the model. RuTSim handles one road stretch in each simulation
run, i. e. rural road networks are not considered. The main road may incorporate intersections and roundabouts and the traffic on the main road
may be interrupted by vehicles entering the main road at intersections
located along the simulated stretch.
A verification of the RuTSim model is also included in the paper.
RuTSim was found to produce speedflow relationships for uninterrupted traffic on two-lane roads close to those of VTISim. The conclusion was therefore that RuTSim is capable of describing traffic on
Swedish two-lane rural roads. RuTSim was also found to be able to reproduce traffic flow properties on roads with separated oncoming traffic
lanes. The verification tests presented in the paper are not intended to
be a validation of the RuTSim model. Such a validation requires comparisons with empirical data. Partial validation of the RuTSim model
is performed through the work described in Paper II and III.
Paper I is published in:
Transportation Research Record 1934, 2005, pp. 169178.
The content of Paper I has been presented at:
The 84th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board,
Washington, D.C., January 913, 2005.
An earlier version of Paper I was presented at:
Transportforum, Linkoping, January 1415, 2004.

Paper II: Rural Highway Design Analysis Through Traffic

Micro-Simulation
An application of RuTSim for rural road design analysis is presented in
Paper II. The objectives of the paper are to describe quality-of-service
effects of oncoming lane separation of rural roads and to illustrate how
RuTSim can be applied for quality-of-service analysis of single carriageway two-lane rural roads and rural road design alternatives with oncoming lane separation.
21

4. THE PRESENT THESIS

The presented simulation study is concerned with quality-of-service

effects of different alternatives for oncoming lane separation of an existing two-lane rural road. The studied road was a 13 meter wide two-lane
road with several intersections. RuTSim was calibrated and validated
for this road based on measured spot speeds. The results indicate that
RuTSim is able to reproduce the measured speeds on the existing road.
The alternatives analysis revealed that none of the alternatives for
oncoming lane separation give as good quality-of-service as the existing
two-lane road. Oncoming lane separation is however installed primarily
for safety reasons and the simulation results showed that two of the
studied design alternatives would give acceptable quality-of-service. The
Swedish Road Administration has chosen to reconstruct the road to a
design close to one of these studied alternatives.
This paper is co-authored with Arne Carlsson. The author of this
thesis has contributed to the paper as main author of the paper and
by major involvement in the research planning, in the modelling and
simulation work and in the analysis of the results.
Paper II is published in:
Nakamura, H. and T. Oguchi (Eds.) Proceedings of the 5th International Symposium on Highway Capacity and Quality of Service,
JSTE, Tokyo, 2006, pp. 249258.
The content of Paper II has been presented at:
The 5th International Symposium on Highway Capacity and Quality of Service, Yokohama, July 2528, 2006.
In addition to Paper II, there are related technical reports that
present results from projects in which the RuTSim model has been applied for rural road design analysis (Carlsson and Tapani, 2005; Tapani,
2006, 2007).

Paper III: On the Application of Traffic Micro-Simulation to

Road Environments in Different Regions
Paper III discusses challenges and issues in relation to the application
of traffic micro-simulation models in different cultural regions, i. e. regions or countries with different social, economical or technological conditions. The purpose of the paper is to bring focus to modelling considerations that are important for todays increasingly detailed traffic
micro-simulation applications.
22

4.4. SUMMARY OF PAPERS

The concerns raised in the paper can be summarised as follows.

There is a general trend in the traffic micro-simulation area towards
more sophisticated and detailed models. This development is facilitated
by the increased availability and use of vehicle trajectory data. The
increased modelling detail may create a need to apply different modelling assumptions regarding driver behaviour for different applications
or when simulating traffic in different cultural regions. It may not be
sufficient to adjust model parameters in the calibration process to reproduce details of the local traffic condition.
A case study in which RuTSim is applied for simulation of traffic
on a two-lane rural road in the Netherlands is presented. This case
study supports the argument that different modelling assumptions may
be needed to simulate traffic in different cultural regions. It was necessary to modify the overtaking model in order to allow RuTSim to
reproduce the observed overtaking frequencies, whereas parameter adjustments were sufficient for calibration of flows and speeds. The changes
made to the overtaking model reflect regional differences in overtaking
behaviour between Sweden and the Netherlands. This is an example
were more detailed output, in this case overtaking frequencies, required
modified modelling assumptions.
This paper is co-authored with Geertje Hegeman and Serge Hoogendoorn. The author of this thesis has contributed to the paper as main
author of the paper and by major involvement in the research planning,
in the modelling and simulation work and in the analysis of the results.
Paper III is published in:
Proceedings of the 87th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C.,
2008.
The content of paper III has been presented at:
The 87th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board,
Washington. D.C., January 1317, 2008.

Paper IV: Evaluation of Safety Effects of Driver Assistance

Systems Through Traffic Simulation
The purpose of Paper IV is to formulate necessary features of a traffic
simulation model to be used for ADAS safety evaluation. The analysis
23

4. THE PRESENT THESIS

is delimited to longitudinal control ADAS, i. e. systems that support

speed and distance keeping with respect to the vehicle in front. The
longitudinal control part of the driving task is in a traffic simulation
model controlled by a car-following model. The focus of the paper is
therefore on the requirements imposed on the car-following modelling.
A car-following model that meets the identified requirements is proposed and implemented in RuTSim. Simulation runs with the proposed
car-following model indicated that behavioural changes caused by the
considered ADAS are important factors for the ADAS safety impacts.
The simulation results indicated also that longitudinal control ADAS
may have consequences not only for the equipped vehicles but also for
surrounding un-equipped vehicles in the traffic.
This paper is co-authored with Jan Lundgren. The author of this
thesis has contributed to the paper as main author of the paper and
by major involvement in the research planning, in the modelling and
simulation work and in the analysis of the results.
Paper IV is published in:
Transportation Research Record 1953, 2006, pp. 8188.
The content of Paper IV has been presented at:
The Workshop on Traffic Modeling: Simulation Models: From the
labs to the trenches, Sedona, September 1821, 2005.
Transportforum, Linkoping, January 1112, 2006.
The 85th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board,
Washington, D.C., January 2226, 2006.
Requirements on traffic simulation models to be used for road safety
assessments of ITS and ADAS are also discussed in the related paper:
Tapani, A. (2005). Traffic Simulation for Road Safety Assessment
of Intelligent Transportation Systems, In Fritzon, P. (Ed.), SimSafe 2005, Proceedings of the Conference on Modeling and Simulation for Public Safety, Linkoping University, Linkoping, pp. 19.

Paper V: Analysis of Rumble Strips and Driver Fatigue Using

Traffic Simulation
Paper V presents a traffic simulation framework for analysis of traffic system impacts of ADAS. Both ADAS functionalities and driver behaviour
24

4.4. SUMMARY OF PAPERS

in ADAS equipped vehicles are taken into account in the evaluation

framework. The purpose of the paper is to illustrate the use of traffic
simulation to aggregate observed individual driver/vehicle behaviour to
effects on the traffic system.
Application of the simulation framework is exemplified by a study of
centre line rumble strips on two-lane rural roads. The effects of physical
milled rumble strips are compared to the effects of virtual in-vehicle
rumble strips for both alert and sleep deprived drivers. Individual driver
behaviour data from a driving simulator study was used for the traffic
simulation. In the driving simulator study, test persons drove the simulator in both alert and sleep deprived condition on a road without centre
line rumble strips, with physical milled rumble strips and with virtual
in-vehicle rumble strips. The test persons free driving speeds, overtaking gap-acceptance behaviour and reaction times were extracted from
the driving simulator data and used for traffic simulation modelling of
rumble strips in RuTSim.
The simulation results displayed differences in average journey speeds
and safety indicators on simulated roads with different types of centre
line rumble strips. An interesting issue within the context of the present
thesis is the use of driving simulator data as input to traffic simulation
modelling. Estimation of car-following and overtaking situations from
the driving simulator data were found to be difficult. Application of
driving simulator studies to collect data to be used for traffic simulation
place new requirements on the driving simulator scenario design.
Paper V is published in:
Advances in Transportation Studies 14, 2008, pp. 6980.
The content of paper V has been presented at:
Road Safety and Simulation, RSS2007, Rome, November 79,
2007.
The use of traffic simulation for evaluation of the traffic system impacts of ADAS is also discussed in the related paper:
Tapani, A. (2007). Analysis of System Effects of Driver Assistance Systems by Traffic Simulation, In Proceedings of the Young
Researchers Seminar 2007, CDV, Brno.
25

4. THE PRESENT THESIS

Paper VI: Overtaking Assistant Assessment Using Traffic

Simulation
Paper VI presents a traffic simulation based evaluation of an overtaking
assistant. The overtaking assistant is modelled in RuTSim and the assistants impacts on driver comfort, road safety and traffic efficiency are
studied for various assistant settings and proportions of equipped vehicles in the simulated traffic. The aim of the paper is to describe potential
effects of an overtaking assistant. From the perspective of the present
thesis, the contribution of the paper is the traffic simulation modelling
of the overtaking assistant. Previous traffic simulation based studies
of driver assistance systems have mainly considered systems that support longitudinal parts of the driving task, i. e. speed limiters and cruise
controls.
The overtaking assistant considered in the paper assists the driver
in the judgement of whether or not an overtaking opportunity can be
accepted based on the time gap to the next oncoming vehicle. This functionality was implemented in RuTSim by modification of the overtaking
decision process in the model. The modelled road was the same Dutch
two-lane road as in the case study presented in Paper III.
The results of the simulations indicate that an overtaking assistant
can provide safety benefits in terms of increased time-to-collision to the
next oncoming vehicle during overtaking manoeuvres. This safety benefit can be achieved without negative consequences for traffic efficiency
and driver comfort.
This paper is co-authored with Geertje Hegeman. The author of this
thesis has contributed to the paper by major involvement in the research
planning, in the modelling and simulation work, in the analysis of the
results and in the writing process.
Paper VI is under revision for publication in Transportation Research
Part C.

Paper VII: Vehicle Trajectory Impacts of Adaptive Cruise

Control
In Paper VII, vehicle trajectories from traffic simulations are used to
study impacts of Adaptive Cruise Control (ACC). The aim of the paper
is to quantify potential impacts of ACC on vehicle acceleration and
deceleration rates in mixed traffic including both ACC-equipped and
26

4.5. FUTURE RESEARCH

standard vehicles. The dependence of the results on driver behaviour in

terms of desired speeds, desired following time gaps and reaction times
is also investigated. Changes in these driver behaviour parameters have
been observed in studies of driving with ACC. The purpose of this work
is not to evaluate a specific ACC system but to provide knowledge of
potential vehicle trajectory impacts of ACC functionality and driver
behavioural adaptations related to ACC.
The analysis presented in the paper is based on RuTSim simulations with car-following models including ACC functionality and driver
behaviour in ACC-equipped as well as standard non-equipped vehicles.
Impacts of ACC on vehicle trajectories from the simulation are quantified using the indicator acceleration noise.
The results show that ACC can result in improved conditions in
terms of reduced acceleration and deceleration rates even though the
macroscopic traffic situation may remain unchanged. It is also established that appropriate modelling of driver behaviour is crucial for the
reliability of traffic simulation based analyses of ACC.
The content of Paper VII has been presented at:
The Workshop on Traffic Modeling: Traffic Behavior and Simulation, Graz, June 30 July 2, 2008.

4.5

Future research

The work presented in the papers included in this thesis give inspiration
for further research. A simulation model should be validated through
the modelling of a large number of real world systems. The RuTSim
applications presented and referred to in this thesis does only amount
to partial validation of the model. There is consequently a need for continued validation of RuTSim. A general research need is cross-validation
of traffic micro-simulation models using data sets collected in different
regions.
A need to improve RuTSims ability to handle large traffic volumes
has also been identified. Such model improvements will involve further
development of some of the sub-models of the simulation. Improved
gap-acceptance and overtaking modelling are for example needed. A
possible improvement of the intersection gap-acceptance logic is to take
drivers impatience in to account, e. g. by allowing the critical time gap
to be a function of the waiting time. Improvement of the overtaking
27

4. THE PRESENT THESIS

modelling should rely on traffic and vehicle trajectory data collected in

high traffic volume conditions, cf. Paper III.
Selection of the appropriate level-of-detail of the traffic simulation
model for the application at hand is another interesting topic for further research. This is not commonly discussed in the traffic simulation
literature. There are however works related to this issue in other fields
of research, cf. Paper III. Application of this knowledge for traffic simulation modelling can improve the reliability of traffic simulation based
analyses.
The work presented in this thesis has established that it is important
to consider driver behaviour in traffic simulation based analyses of driver
assistance systems. The current practice of driver behaviour studies
is however not suitable to allow use of the findings for traffic microsimulation modelling. Driving simulator experiments are for example
often designed to reveal the test persons reactions in relation to isolated
critical situations. Driver behaviour studies performed for subsequent
use of the results for traffic simulation modelling involve observation of
the drivers continuous actions and reactions. There is, for this reason,
a need for research on the design of experiments for collection of driver
behaviour data for traffic simulation modelling.
Simulation based road safety and environmental impact analyses can
be conducted using performance indicators derived from the resulting
vehicle trajectories of the simulation. Relationships between simulation
based indicators and effects in real traffic have, however, in many cases
not been established. This is consequently an important topic for further
research.

28

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