Car Following Behavior of Driver - Traffic Congestion and Safety on the Road
Understanding car following contributes significantly to an understanding of traffic flow. Car following is a relatively simple task compared to the totality of tasks required for vehicle control (Amirudin bin Ismail, 2002). However, it is a task that is commonly practiced on dual or multiple lane roadways when passing becomes difficult or when traffic is restrained to a single lane. Car following is a task that has been of direct or indirect interest since the early development of the automobile.
Driver's car following behavior is the process of following drivers attempt to adjust to the behavior of the leading vehicle (Othman Che Puan, 2004). The driver needs to adjust speed and position to keep a safe following distance at all times. The car following phenomena can be observed when a faster vehicle cannot immediately overtake the slower vehicle in a traffic stream.