DRIVER MANDATORY LANE CHANGE BEHAVIOR: USE OF GOVERNING GAP IN CRITICAL GAP ESTIMATION

摘要

This study analyzed the driver gap acceptance and rejection behavior during mandatory lanechanges on a multilane freeway. During a lane change, drivers were more receptive to either theleading or the trailing gaps with vehicles in the target lane which governed the drivers’ lanechange and is termed as the governing gap. Drivers maneuvered till the governing gap wasgreater than the critical gap, then accepted the gap and made a lane change. In this process,drivers reduced the non-governing gap to increase the length of the governing gap. The drivers,as a result, were found to be consistent with respect to the governing gap and inconsistent withrespect to the non-governing gap. The governing gap, therefore, addresses the consistent driverbehavior and avoids categorization of drivers as inconsistent. Consistent driver behavior isfurther augmented in this paper by considering the largest rejected less than the accepted gap(LRLA) as the effective rejected gap. Critical gaps were estimated based on the accepted andLRLA gaps, firstly, by categorizing the drivers based on the governing gap and the type ofmaneuver, and secondly, by categorizing the drivers based on the relative speeds. For a simplelane change model, categorization by governing gap and type of maneuver will be sufficient witha critical gap value distribution defined by empirical data. For a sophisticated lane change model,in addition to maneuver types, critical gaps estimated based on difference in relative speeds willhelp better replicate the realistic lane change behavior of drivers.