Solid angle car following model

Existing traffic flow models give little consideration on vehicle sizes. We introduce the solid angle into car-following theory, taking the driver's perception of the leading vehicle's size into account. The solid angle and its change rate are applied as inputs to the novel model. A nonlinear stability analysis is performed to analyze the asymmetry of the model and the size effect of the leading vehicle, and the modified Korteweg-de Vries equation is derived. The solid angle model can explain complex traffic characteristics and provide an important basis for modeling nonlinear traffic phenomena.