A Process Reengineering on Maintaining Safe Headway

In order to solve the enormous differences about safe headway between the theoretical value from academic researches and the observational value from practical road conditions, in this paper, a new vehicle-following models is established to accurately simulate the vehicle-following process, which conforms to the actual situation much better, and an operable reference value could be deduced for car drivers. Combined with the experiences of outstanding drivers, this paper reengineers an integrated process including maintaining safe headway and changing lane or braking as guidance. In addition, the limit of safe headway is discussed, the reliable measures are found, so the safe headway could be shortened to improve the efficiency of road utilization. The broad applicability of this conclusion is verified by empirical data.