Acceleration and Deceleration Parameter Calibration of Tunnel Entrance Based on the Naturalistic Driving Test of Passenger Car

Abstract

The precise calibration of acceleration and deceleration parameters is crucial for improving the accuracy of operating speed prediction and analysis tools at tunnel entrances. Therefore, acceleration and deceleration data of passenger car captured from 20 drivers at 30 tunnel entrances were collected from 200 m outside to 200 m inside the tunnel portal and averaged across four study zones. The results show that, first, the distribution of deceleration rates based on speed differs from that of acceleration rates based on speed in all zones. Second, significant differences in the probability density distribution of deceleration were found between each zone ( p < 0.001 ), but differences in acceleration could not be found between any zones ( p > 0.05 ). Third, the feature values (breakpoints) of the acceleration/deceleration cumulative frequency curves were located near the 95th percentile, differing from the traditional 85th percentile found with the extant model. The feature values of acceleration in the four zones coincided at 0.5 m/s2 and those of deceleration were 0.93, 0.85, 0.70, and 0.47 m/s2 under zones 1–4, respectively. This study provides accurate feature values of acceleration and deceleration for modelling an updated tunnel entrance operating speed prediction model.