Stochastic modeling for vehicle platoons (II): Statistical characteristics

•This paper investigates statistical properties for platoons' characteristics.•We derive statistical distribution models for some important platoons' characteristics.•These statistical distribution models are crucial for us to understand traffic platooning phenomenon and can be used for the design of traffic control algorithms.

This two-part paper presents a new approach to stochastic dynamic modeling for vehicle platoons. Part I develops a vehicle platoon model to capture the dynamics of vehicles' grouping behavior and proposes an online platoon recognition algorithm. On the basis of the developed platoon model, Part II investigates various important characteristics of vehicle platoons and derives their statistical distribution models, including platoon size, within-platoon headway, between-platoon headway and platoon speed. It is shown that the derived statistical distributions include some important existing models in the literature as their special cases. These statistical distribution models are crucial for us to understand the traffic platooning phenomenon. In practice, they can be used as the inputs for the design of traffic management and control algorithms for traffic with a platoon structure. Real traffic data is used to illustrate the obtained theoretical results.