Enhancing Driver Behavior Models in Response to Emergency Vehicles

Emergency Vehicle Preemption (EVP) is a traffic operation strategy intended to minimize the travel times of Emergency Vehicles (ERV s) in a network. The ripple effects of a disruptive event such as the entry of an ERV are usually seen over a broad area of the traffic network, under medium to heavy traffic conditions. As traffic densities continue to grow, incorporating a robust preemption system is vital in ensuring prompt emergency responses. Preemption systems are often evaluated under naive scenarios in a simulation environment, without consideration of the interactions between ERVs and non-ERVs. This research intends to develop ERV and non- ERV driver models to enable realistic simulation of such interactions. The findings show large differences in the simulated performance metrics reported on standard simulation platforms with and without the incorporation of realistic driver behavior.