This study estimated composite headway distributions consisting of follower and non-follower headway elements and used the follower percentage obtained as the estimated parameters of those distributions to evaluate the quality of service (QOS) of traffic flow on Japanese intercity expressways under uncongested conditions. Analysis of pulse data obtained by vehicle detectors at multiple points with differing geometric structures showed that follower percentage is influenced by lane traffic volume, vehicle pair, and lane operation. Use of follower percentage also enabled clear and quantitative comparison and evaluation of the QOS of traffic flow for different lane operation formats, which could not be adequately expressed by such conventional macroscopic indices as average speed and traffic density. This indicates that follower percentage is a suitable performance measure for evaluating the QOS of traffic flow.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.