The effect of visibility on road traffic during foggy weather conditions

Abstract

The impact of fog on visibility is a major factor affecting traffic congestion and safety. This paper proposes a microscopic traffic model that captures the features of traffic in foggy weather and characterizes it based on visibility. The intelligent driver (ID) model is based on a constant acceleration exponent and produces similar traffic behaviour for all conditions, which is unrealistic. The performance of the ID and proposed models is evaluated on a 2.2 km ring road for 250 s with a platoon of 51 vehicles. Results are presented which show that the proposed model characterizes traffic realistically with lower acceleration and deceleration compared to the ID model. Further, it does not create stop‐and‐go waves and is stable even during foggy weather. The proposed model can be used to reduce fuel consumption and pollution resulting from traffic congestion.

Analysis of the Multi-Dimensional Characteristics of City Weather Forecast Page Views and the Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Meteorological Disaster Warnings in China

“…When planning travel and daily routines on weekdays, individuals must adhere to stringent timetables for commuting, transporting children to school, attending professional meetings, and more. Consequently, weather conditions become a pivotal factor, influencing decisions like carrying rain gear or allowing extra time to navigate potential traffic delays [19][20][21]. Hence, staying informed about weekday weather is paramount for efficient trip planning.…”

Verification of the Applicability of Obstacle Recognition Distance as a Measure of Effectiveness of Road Lighting on Rainy and Foggy Roads

“…Because of this, some of the light is lost or reflected back towards road users in the form of a veil of fog that obscures details of the road ahead [8]. This decrease in visibility due to fog results in a decrease in the driver's visual and operating abilities, threatening safe driving [9,10].…”

“…In fact, there are research cases that have identified through subject experiments that obstacle recognition distance increases as lighting performance improves [20], and there are studies that have identified through empirical experiments that obstacle recognition distance can change by applying various road lighting during adverse weather [9]. Additionally, there are empirical research results showing that the higher the color temperature of road lighting during fog, the higher the obstacle visibility [21].…”