Evaluation of car-following model for inland vessel-following behavior

Due to the unique role of inland waterway transport in reducing carbon emissions, the demand for inland vessel transportation has greatly increased recent years in China. More and more vessels in the inland waterway have gradually formed a non-free following queue, rather than the free traffic flow of the past. To provide a theoretical basis for organizing the vessel traffic under a crowded state, it is necessary to understand accurately the microscopic characteristics of inland waterway vessel traffic flow, such as vessel-following behavior. This research carried out three vessel-following experiments to obtain valuable microscopic data of vessel-following behavior in different inland restricted waterways in Yangtze Delta, China. Considering the uniformity of traffic flow, six typical car-following models were tried to verify their applicability to inland vessel-following behavior. The parameters of the car-following models were recalibrated based on the experimental data. The simulation results of different models were evaluated, and the improved General Motor (GM) model was proposed to avoid vessel collision during the simulation process in GM model. The results show that the improved GM model, Newell model, Intelligent Driver model (IDM) and Longitudinal Control model (LCM) were confirmed to be suitable to describe the vessel-following behavior in the inland restricted waterway. These models may help professionals understand deeply the inland vessel traffic characteristics.