Gipps’ model, a well-known safe distance car-following model, has a very strict restriction on the car-following behavior that the following vehicle has to maintain the exact safe distance to the leading vehicle to avoid rear crash. However, this restriction is not consistent with the real traffic condition. Due to that, an enhanced safe distance car-following model is proposed first, and then calibrated and evaluated using the field data. Furthermore, the simulation is conducted to analyze the characteristics of the new model. The results of evaluation and simulation illustrate that the proposed model has higher simulation accuracy than the original Gipps’ model, and can reproduce the stable flow and shock wave phenomena that are very common in real traffic.Moreover, the simulation results also prove that the enhanced model can better stabilize the traffic flow than Gipps’ model. Gipps’ model, a well-known safe distance car-following model, has a very strict restriction on the car-following behavior that the following vehicle has to maintain the exact safe distance to the leading vehicle to avoid rear crash. However, this restriction Due to that an enhanced safe distance car-following model is proposed first, and then calibrated and evaluated using the field data. Furthermore, the simulation is conducted to analyze the characteristics of the new model. The results of evaluation and simulation illustrate that the proposed model has higher simulation accuracy than the original Gipps’ model, and can reproduce the stable flow and shock wave phenomena that are very common in real traffic. Moreover, the simulation results also prove that the enhanced model can better stabilize the traffic flow than Gipps’ model.