A new car-following model considering driver's characteristics and traffic jerk

In this paper, we propose an extension of the optimal velocity car-following model to consider explicitly the timid and aggressive driving behavior as well as the traffic jerk. The linear stability condition of the new model is derived, where the effect of traffic jerk and intensity of influence of drivers' behavior on the traffic flow stability is investigated. By applying the reductive perturbation method, we derive a modified Korteweg-de Vries equation near the critical point to describe the evolution properties of traffic density waves via nonlinear stability analysis. The results show that the provision of aggressive drivers is a greater contributor to improving the stability of traffic flow compared to the timid ones in the context of traffic jerk, and that the stability of traffic flow can be improved by the provision of well-experienced drivers.