Comparing numerical integration schemes for time-continuous car-following models

When simulating trajectories by integrating time-continuous car-following models, standard integration schemes such as the fourth-order Runge–Kutta method (RK4) are rarely used while the simple Euler method is popular among researchers. We compare four explicit methods both analytically and numerically: Euler’s method, ballistic update, Heun’s method (trapezoidal rule), and the standard RK4. As performance metrics, we plot the global discretization error as a function of the numerical complexity. We tested the methods on several time-continuous car-following models in several multi-vehicle simulation scenarios with and without discontinuities such as stops or a discontinuous behavior of an external leader. We find that the theoretical advantage of RK4 (consistency order 4) only plays a role if both the acceleration function of the model and the trajectory of the leader are sufficiently often differentiable. Otherwise, we obtain lower (and often fractional) consistency orders. Although, to our knowledge, Heun’s method has never been used for integrating car-following models, it turns out to be the best scheme for many practical situations. The ballistic update always prevails over Euler’s method although both are of first order.