Driver Reactions to Uphill Grades: Inference from a Stochastic Car-Following Model

Author(s):  
Tu Xu ◽  
Jorge Laval

This paper analyzes the impact of uphill grades on the acceleration drivers choose to impose on their vehicles. Statistical inference is made based on the maximum likelihood estimation of a two-regime stochastic car-following model using Next Generation SIMulation (NGSIM) data. Previous models assume that the loss in acceleration on uphill grades is given by the effects of gravity. We find evidence that this is not the case for car drivers, who tend to overcome half of the gravitational effects by using more engine power. Truck drivers only compensate for 5% of the loss, possibly because of limited engine power. This indicates not only that current models are severely overestimating the operational impacts that uphill grades have on regular vehicles, but also underestimating their environmental impacts. We also find that car-following model parameters are significantly different among shoulder, median and middle lanes but more data is needed to understand clearly why this happens.

2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Helena Mouriño ◽  
Maria Isabel Barão

Missing-data problems are extremely common in practice. To achieve reliable inferential results, we need to take into account this feature of the data. Suppose that the univariate data set under analysis has missing observations. This paper examines the impact of selecting an auxiliary complete data set—whose underlying stochastic process is to some extent interdependent with the former—to improve the efficiency of the estimators for the relevant parameters of the model. The Vector AutoRegressive (VAR) Model has revealed to be an extremely useful tool in capturing the dynamics of bivariate time series. We propose maximum likelihood estimators for the parameters of the VAR(1) Model based on monotone missing data pattern. Estimators’ precision is also derived. Afterwards, we compare the bivariate modelling scheme with its univariate counterpart. More precisely, the univariate data set with missing observations will be modelled by an AutoRegressive Moving Average (ARMA(2,1)) Model. We will also analyse the behaviour of the AutoRegressive Model of order one, AR(1), due to its practical importance. We focus on the mean value of the main stochastic process. By simulation studies, we conclude that the estimator based on the VAR(1) Model is preferable to those derived from the univariate context.


2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Tao Wang ◽  
Jing Zhang ◽  
Guangyao Li ◽  
Keyu Xu ◽  
Shubin Li

In the traditional optimal velocity model, safe distance is usually a constant, which, however, is not representative of actual traffic conditions. This paper attempts to study the impact of dynamic safety distance on vehicular stream through a car-following model. Firstly, a new car-following model is proposed, in which the traditional safety distance is replaced by a dynamic term. Then, the phase diagram in the headway, speed, and sensitivity spaces is given to illustrate the impact of a variable safe distance on traffic flow. Finally, numerical methods are conducted to examine the performance of the proposed model with regard to two aspects: compared with the optimal velocity model, the new model can suppress traffic congestion effectively and, for different safety distances, the dynamic safety distance can improve the stability of vehicular stream. Simulation results suggest that the new model is able to enhance traffic flow stability.


2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (32) ◽  
pp. 1850398 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tenglong Li ◽  
Fei Hui ◽  
Xiangmo Zhao

The existing car-following models of connected vehicles commonly lack experimental data as evidence. In this paper, a Gray correlation analysis is conducted to explore the change in driving behavior with safety messages. The data mining analysis shows that the dominant factor of car-following behavior is headway with no safety message, whereas the velocity difference between the leading and following vehicle becomes the dominant factor when warning messages are received. According to this result, an extended car-following model considering the impact of safety messages (IOSM) is proposed based on the full velocity difference (FVD) model. The stability criterion of this new model is then obtained through a linear stability analysis. Finally, numerical simulations are performed to verify the theoretical analysis results. Both analytical and simulation results show that traffic congestion can be suppressed by safety messages. However, the IOSM model is slightly less stable than the FVD model if the average headway in traffic flow is approximately 14–20 m.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-81
Author(s):  
Lazhar BENKHELIFA

A new lifetime model, with four positive parameters, called the Weibull Birnbaum-Saunders distribution is proposed. The proposed model extends the Birnbaum-Saunders distribution and provides great flexibility in modeling data in practice. Some mathematical properties of the new distribution are obtained including expansions for the cumulative and density functions, moments, generating function, mean deviations, order statistics and reliability. Estimation of the model parameters is carried out by the maximum likelihood estimation method. A simulation study is presented to show the performance of the maximum likelihood estimates of the model parameters. The flexibility of the new model is examined by applying it to two real data sets.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Kathleen Large

<p>The aim of this project was to conduct a stock assessment to determine the population dynamic characteristics of rattail species taken as bycatch in the hoki, hake and ling fishery on the Chatham Rise. No quantitative assessment of the current size of rattail populations , and how these may have changed over time, has been carried out before. There is interest in the need to quantify the impact of commercial fishing on the rattail populations, as rattails (Macrouridae family) are considered to be an ecologically important species complex in the deep ocean, and there may be the potential for the development of a commercial fishery based on their value as processed fishmeal. The minimum data required for a stock assessment are an abundance index and a catch history. Abundance indices are available for over 20 species of rattail produced from scientific surveys conducted annually on the Chatham Rise since 1992. Catch histories for individual rattail species in the same area are not available. A method was developed to reconstruct commercial catches of rattails from commercial effort data and survey catch and effort data. A surplus production model was fitted to the reconstructed catch data and survey abundance indices, using maximum likelihood and Bayesian methods to estimate model parameters and uncertainty. A surplus production model has two components: an observation model for abundance indices and a process model for population dynamics. Maximum likelihood estimation was applied to a model that specified errors for the observations only, and this produced estimates that had wide confidence intervals. A Bayesian approach was then taken to fit a statespace version of the model that incorporates errors associated with the observation and process models. While the Bayesian method produced more plausible parameter estimates (in comparison to the maximum likelihood method) and parameter uncertainty was reduced, our analysis indicated the posterior estimates were highly sensitive to the specification of different priors. There may be several reasons for these results, including: the small number of observations, lack of contrast in the data and mis-specification of the model. Meaningful estimates of the absolute size of rattail populations are not possible with these results, where estimates can vary by orders of magnitude depending on prior specification. This implies that more work needs to be done to develop more effective methods that can be used to help inform decisions regarding the management of these fish populations. Improving data collection, investigating informative priors and extending/respecifying the model are considered worthwhile avenues of future work to improve stock assessments of rattails.</p>


2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (10) ◽  
pp. 2352-2357
Author(s):  
David A Shaw ◽  
Vu C Dinh ◽  
Frederick A Matsen

Abstract Maximum likelihood estimation in phylogenetics requires a means of handling unknown ancestral states. Classical maximum likelihood averages over these unknown intermediate states, leading to provably consistent estimation of the topology and continuous model parameters. Recently, a computationally efficient approach has been proposed to jointly maximize over these unknown states and phylogenetic parameters. Although this method of joint maximum likelihood estimation can obtain estimates more quickly, its properties as an estimator are not yet clear. In this article, we show that this method of jointly estimating phylogenetic parameters along with ancestral states is not consistent in general. We find a sizeable region of parameter space that generates data on a four-taxon tree for which this joint method estimates the internal branch length to be exactly zero, even in the limit of infinite-length sequences. More generally, we show that this joint method only estimates branch lengths correctly on a set of measure zero. We show empirically that branch length estimates are systematically biased downward, even for short branches.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 150-165
Author(s):  
Tenglong Li ◽  
Dong Ngoduy ◽  
Fei Hui ◽  
Xiangmo Zhao

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 57
Author(s):  
Xiao-Yan Cao ◽  
Bing-Qian Liu ◽  
Bao-Ru Pan ◽  
Yuan-Biao Zhang

With the accelerating development of urbanization in China, the increasing traffic demand and large scale gated communities have aggravated urban traffic congestion. This paper studies the impact of communities opening on road network structure and the surrounding road capacity. Firstly, we select four indicators, namely average speed, vehicle flow, average delay time, and queue length, to measure traffic capacity. Secondly, we establish the Wiedemann car-following model, then use VISSIM software to simulate the traffic conditions of surrounding roads of communities. Finally, we take Shenzhen as an example to simulate and compare the four kinds of gated communities, axis, centripetal and intensive layout, and we also analyze the feasibility of opening communities.


2014 ◽  
Vol 28 (24) ◽  
pp. 1450191 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geng Zhang ◽  
Di-Hua Sun ◽  
Hui Liu ◽  
Min Zhao

In recent years, the influence of drivers' behaviors on traffic flow has attracted considerable attention according to Transportation Cyber Physical Systems. In this paper, an extended car-following model is presented by considering drivers' timid or aggressive characteristics. The impact of drivers' timid or aggressive characteristics on the stability of traffic flow has been analyzed through linear stability theory and nonlinear reductive perturbation method. Numerical simulation shows that the propagating behavior of traffic density waves near the critical point can be described by the kink–antikink soliton of the mKdV equation. The good agreement between the numerical simulation and the analytical results shows that drivers' characteristics play an important role in traffic jamming transition.


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