Reaction Time and Headway in Car-Following Flow

In order to investigate the effect of using driving simulator to simulate driving behaviors, car following experiments were conducted in virtual and real road environments using the fourth ring road in Beijing as an example to create simulation scenarios and taking into account the factors such as geometry alignment, traffic equipment, environment condition, and traffic condition. The reaction time and headway of car-following flow in acceleration and deceleration states were compared between driving simulator and real-world environment, and the experimental results were interpreted in terms of monocular depth cues in virtual environment and behavior characteristics of the simulated vehicles. The results show that the reaction time of drivers in car-following acceleration and deceleration states in the virtual situation is slightly larger than that in the real situation. The headway in virtual environment is significantly larger than that in the real environment. When using simulator to study driving behaviors, distance-related parameters need to be modified to obtain consistent results with the actual road environment, and the range of correction coefficient is between 1.5 to 2.0.