Verification of a simplified car-following theory

A simple car-following rule proposed by G.F. Newell was verified by measuring vehicles discharging from long queues at signalized intersections. Observations indicated that the time-space trajectory of a jth vehicle discharging on a homogeneous intersection approach was essentially the same as the j-1th vehicle except for a translation in time and space. These fixed translations are merely the time and distance required for driver j to reach the spacings she chooses for following vehicle j-1 as a function of j-1's velocities. This description is far simpler, and uses fewer parameters, than other car-following models.