Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Driver Model Platform - Version 1.1 : [fact sheet]
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Summary
This fact sheet details the development and validation of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) Work Zone Driver Model Version 1.1, a specialized software tool designed to improve the accuracy of traffic simulations in freeway work zones. The research was motivated by the significant operational impacts of work zones, which account for nearly 24 percent of annual non-recurring delay in the United States. With the number of freeway work zones projected to increase as infrastructure reaches its design life, there is a critical need for planners and engineers to predict delays, queues, and travel times more accurately. Existing microsimulation tools were identified as insufficient because their standard car-following algorithms do not account for the distinct behavioral changes drivers exhibit when approaching and traversing work zones. To address this gap, the FHWA and the U.S. Department of Transportation Volpe Center developed a microscopic driver behavior model that interfaces with commercially available microsimulation software, such as VISSIM. The model was calibrated using car-following data collected via an instrumented research vehicle (IRV) on Interstate 95 near Washington, DC, in 2013 and Interstate 91 in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 2016. Analysis of this data revealed strong variations in car-following behaviors between work zone and non-work zone segments. Consequently, the model employs a multi-dimensional psycho-physical framework and acceleration/deceleration algorithms derived from modified field theory to separately describe car-following in freeways, advanced warning zones, taper zones, and work zones. The models were trained and tested using cross-validation against separate validation data from I-95 to ensure accuracy and prevent overfitting. The model’s performance was validated through a case study on the I-91 work zone in Springfield, MA, in collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT). The validation compared the model’s predictions against field data regarding queue locations, lengths, and travel times. Results demonstrated that the FHWA Work Zone Driver Model predicted travel times and queue locations more accurately than calibrated microsimulation software using standard parameters. While the model successfully reproduced observed behaviors, the authors noted opportunities for future improvement, specifically regarding algorithms to capture additional variations in driver behavior that are currently handled by stochastic elements in standard microsimulation models. The FHWA Work Zone Driver Model v1.1 is available for download on the Open Source Application Development Portal (OSADP) as part of the FHWA Driver Model Platform v0.6.2. This tool provides transportation agencies and private industry practitioners with a more precise method for designing and planning work zones to minimize delays. The model is subject to annual upgrades, reflecting an ongoing effort to refine microscopic simulation capabilities for work zone traffic management.
Key finding
The FHWA Work Zone Driver Model predicted travel times and queue locations more accurately than the calibrated baseline microsimulation in the I-91 Springfield validation case study.
Methodology
simulation_modeling
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_rosap on 2026-05-23 (7 acquisition events logged).
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | rosap | — | — | 2 | 2026-05-23 |
| archive | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
| clean | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| chunk | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| embed | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-02 |
| enrich | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 19 | 2026-06-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
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- Methodological Resource: tool software
- Theoretical Contribution: computational model, theory or model