Stage-specific impacts of hazy weather on car following

Abstract

The impacts of low visibility due to hazy weather (HW) conditions on longitudinal car-following (CF) driving behaviour for three different stages (accelerating, decelerating and steady CF stages) were investigated. Clear weather and HW scenarios simulated by a high-fidelity driving simulator were used in the investigation. The simulated results showed that low-visibility environments due to HW conditions have substantial and stage-specific impacts on driving behaviour. For instance, in HW conditions, drivers’ sensitivity to changes in relative speed decreases in the accelerating CF stage but increases in the decelerating and steady CF stages. The results indicate that, in HW conditions, drivers adopt earlier acceleration actions to follow the lead vehicle closely and take quicker and sharper braking actions to avoid collisions due to the smaller headway. The results provide useful references for developing microscopic traffic simulations and traffic strategies in HW conditions.