Car Following Behaviours on Multilane Highways in Kuwait: A Case Study on Road 40 during Winter Season

Abstract

Abstract. The car following behaviour of a driver is the process of following the drivers to ‎create an adjustment in the leading vehicle behaviour. In a condition, where ‎the traffic volume is ‎light or in a free-flowing situation, the selection of drivers in relation to ‎speed is typically limited by ‎some factors such as weather conditions, lighting, and road ‎geometry features. In this paper, ‎car following headways was analysed based on ‎operating speed and time of headway with ‎this multilane road‎. ‎Road‎ 40 in Kuwait was used as a case study, and the data was collected at the road using device named RTMS Sx-300 which is known as a ‎radar device particularly used for monitoring traffic. The data was gathered between the periods ‎from 29th December 2018 to 5th January 2019 within winter.  MATLAB code was written to analyse and classify the gathered data. Then, the models were built using R-software. The study depicts that nearly 24.87% of the vehicles move 60 to 69 kilometres ‎per hour. Additionally, the vehicles were segmented ‎according to different kinds i.e. Truck, ‎Small, Medium and Large Sized Cars, in order to ‎find the impact of following pattern on the ‎vehicle average. It has been found that no ‎significant association remains amidst the type of ‎following pattern and the headway. The finding of this studies complies ‎with conclusions drawn by many existing explorations, which declare that just the ‎weather, driver’s mood and road conditions influence vehicle headway. Ultimately, a ‎liner regression of data was developed to calculate a liner equation that shows the ‎headway average as an element of speed for sixteen diverse following pattern. It has ‎been recognized that an association could be supposed in medium-sized and small-sized ‎vehicles. It has been observed that headway average could be placed in a linear equation ‎for large, medium, and small as well as truck vehicles. It is worthy to denote that when ‎data is bigger, the exactitude of a study enhances. Findings from each model of liner regression has more than ‎80% confidence level. The model of regression are deliberated as statistically ‎significant where, the R (square) figures lies amidst 0.99 till 0.6. As per the findings, ‎speed is the key influencing factor for headway value. The type of car does affect ‎headway with drivers behind Heavy Good Vehicles and cars at the similar speed. ‎According to the data, cars are identified to keep more headway when behind Heavy ‎Good Vehicles in contrast with when behind other cars. These results will help the drivers to understand their behaviour that are ‎associated ‎with car crashes. Thus, increase ‎road ‎safety awareness and reduce traffic congestion in Kuwait.