Lane changing models (original) (raw)

Integrated Lane Changing Models

This paper summarizes a series of advances in lane changing models aiming at providing a more complete and integrated representation of drivers' behaviors. These advances include the integration of mandatory and discretionary lane changes in a single framework, the inclusion of an explicit target lane choice in the decision process and the incorporation of various types of lane-changing mechanisms, such as cooperative lane changing and forced merging. In the specifications of these models, heterogeneity in the driver population and correlations among the various decisions a single driver makes across choice dimensions and time are addressed. These model enhancements were implemented in the open source microscopic traffic simulator of MITSIMLab, and their impact was demonstrated in validation case studies where their performance was compared to that of existing models. In all cases, a substantial improvement in simulation capability was observed.

Modeling integrated lane-changing behavior

… Record: Journal of the …, 2003

The lane-changing model is an important component within microscopic traffic simulation tools. Following the emergence of these tools in recent years, interest in the development of more reliable lane-changing models has increased. Lane-changing behavior is also important in several other applications such as capacity analysis and safety studies.

A Driver Behavior-Based Lane-Changing Model for Urban Arterial Streets

Transportation Science, 2014

Lane-changing algorithms have attracted increased attention during recent years. However, limited research has been conducted to address the probability of changing lanes as a function of driver characteristics and lane-changing scenarios. This study contributes to the development of a comprehensive framework for modeling drivers' lane-changing maneuver on arterials by using driver behavior-related data. Focus group studies and “in-vehicle” driving tests were performed to investigate the effects of driver type under various lane changes on urban arterials and to collect microscopic vehicular data. With these field collected values, a model was developed to estimate the probability of changing lanes under various lane-changing scenarios and to estimate the corresponding gap acceptance characteristics. The lane-changing probability for each scenario was modeled as a function of the factors identified from the focus group discussions, as well as the driver types. In the gap accepta...

Lane-changing model with explicit target lane choice

… Record: Journal of the …, 2005

The lane-changing model is an important component of microscopic traffic simulation tools. With the increasing popularity of these tools, a number of lane-changing models have been proposed and implemented in various simulators in recent years. Most of these models are based on the assumption that drivers evaluate the current and adjacent lanes and choose a direction of change (or not to change) based on the utilities of these lanes only. The lane choice set is therefore dictated by the current position of the vehicle, and in multi-lane facilities would be restricted to a subset of the available lanes. Thus, existing models lack an explicit tactical choice of a target lane and therefore cannot explain a sequence of lane changes from the current lane to this lane.

Lane changing models: a critical review

2010

Lane changing manoeuvres have a significant impact on macroscopic and microscopic characteristics of traffic flows due to the interference effect they have on surrounding traffic. Understanding the factors which affect drivers' lane changing behaviour is important due to the implication of lane changing models in variety of traffic and transportation studies. This paper reviews the existing lane changing models and assesses the strengths and weaknesses of each model type. In addition, the lane changing models are classified according to their characteristics. Then, limitations of the existing lane changing models are identified. Finally, the findings and conclusions of the paper are summarized and more promising research directions are suggested.

Modeling lane-changing behavior in presence of exclusive lanes

2004

Driving behavior is significantly affected by the presence of exclusive lanes. Particularly, unlimited access to exclusive lanes result significant amount of special type of lane-changing actions. The objective of this thesis is to develop an improved lanechanging model that has a generalized structure and is flexible enough to capture the lane-changing behavior in all situations including the presence of unlimited access

Lane Selection Model for Urban Intersections

Transportation Research Record …, 2008

In this paper, we present a lane choice model for urban arterial intersections. This replaces the rulebased heuristics to assign vehicles in their subsequent lanes used in state-of-the-art microscopic traffic simulators. The lane choice at intersections is modeled as a two step process: target lane choice and immediate lane selection based on the selected target lane. The target lane is the lane the driver perceives as the best to be in taking a wide range of factors and goals into account. These include path-plan considerations and lane-specific attributes and can vary with the planning capability and aggressiveness of the driver. However, maneuver to the target lane may not be possible immediately. The observed trajectories only consist of the immediate lane choices of the drivers. The choice of immediate lane is conditional on the target lane selection and affected by maneuverability considerations and aggressiveness of the driver. The parameters of the target lane and immediate lane choice models are jointly estimated with detailed vehicle trajectories. The heterogeneities of the driver population, both in terms of planning capability and aggressiveness, are explicitly taken into account in the model formulation. The estimated model is compared with a single level intersection lane choice model to demonstrate the improvements in the goodness-of-fit. The improvements are further strengthened by validation studies within the microscopic traffic simulator MITSIMLab where the simulation results using the proposed model yield better matches with observed data compared to the rule-based models. TRB 2008 Annual Meeting CD-ROM Paper revised from original submittal.

Modeling Lane-Changing Behavior of Vehicles at Merge Section under Mixed Traffic Conditions

Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems, 2021

The lane-changing behavior of different types of vehicles at the merging section of an urban road is assessed by using a new lanechanging model proposed in the current work. The lane-changing model known as MOBIL (minimizing overall braking induced by lane changes) is modified and combined with the intelligent driver model (IDM) to implement the lane-changing rules for different vehicle classes by applying the politeness and vehicle-type factors. It is noted that the heterogeneity of surrounding vehicles during lane-changing, which is common in developing countries, is not considered in most of the existing lane-changing models. The preceding problem is addressed by incorporating the vehicle-type dependent factor in the proposed lane-changing model. This new model considers the effect of motorcycle movement on the lane-changing decision and evaluates the aggressiveness of motorcyclists during lane-changing. The merging maneuver data from video recording is utilized to calibrate and validate the models. The lane changing rate is the highest for motorcycles and the least for trucks (at a given politeness factor). Motorcycles exhibit lower lane changing durations for politeness factors p ¼ 0 and p ¼ 1, showing integrated movements due to their pushy or erratic maneuverability.

Exploratory Analysis of Lane Changing on Freeways Based on Driver Behavior

Journal of Transportation Engineering, 2014

Lane changing has received much attention as it is a significant component of microscopic traffic simulation. Many studies have focused on the details of the lane changing maneuver from external observation-based data which do not consider the type of driver performing the maneuver. The research reported in this paper relates the physical details of freeway lane changing to the type of driver performing the maneuver. Forty-six research participants drove an instrumented vehicle and performed a combined total of 726 freeway lane changes. Each research participant was categorized into one of four groups ranging from conservative to aggressive based on cluster analysis. The data were analyzed to identify any trends between the different driver types and their lane changing characteristics, specifically lane changing duration and gap acceptance characteristics. In general, more conservative drivers have greater lane changing durations than aggressive drivers. The gap acceptance comparison among driver types did not yield any conclusive trend. In addition, distributions were fitted to lane changing duration and gap acceptance histograms. The results suggest that driver type impacts freeway lane changing behavior, and therefore should be taken into account when developing or refining simulation-based lane changing models.

Modeling the Strategic Behavior of Drivers for Multi-Lane Highway Driving

Journal of Intelligent Transportation Systems, 2014

Current state-of-the-art highway traffic flow simulators rely extensively on models using formulas similar to those describing physical phenomena, such as forces, viscosity, or potential fields. These models have been carefully calibrated to represent the overall flow of traffic and they can also be extended to account for the cognitive limitations of the driver, such as reaction times. However, there are some aspects of driver behavior, such as strategic planning, that are difficult to formulate mathematically. In this article, we describe the YAES-DSIM highway simulator, which integrates virtual physics models with an agent-based model. The virtual physics component models the physical vehicle and the subconscious aspects of the driver behavior, while the agent component is responsible for the strategic and tactical decisions, which are difficult to model using virtual physics. We focus on the lane change decisions of the drivers, with special attention to the optimal lane positioning for a safe exit. We have used the model to simulate the flow of traffic on Highway 408 in Orlando, Florida, and to study the impact of various tactical and strategic decisions on the efficiency and safety of the traffic.