Calibration of Platoon Dispersion Parameter Considering the Impact of the Number of Lanes
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 139, Issue 2
Abstract
Microscopic vehicle behaviors, such as car following, overtaking, and lane changing, may occur differently on links with different numbers of lanes. Thus, this paper addresses the impact of the number of lanes on the platoon dispersion of traffic flow in low-friction conditions. A well-adopted dispersion model is used to reflect the platoon dispersion. The platoon dispersion factor of the model is then recalibrated using data on road segments with different numbers of lanes. The data are obtained from a comprehensive survey taken at several locations on the arterial streets of Changchun and Hangzhou city, China, where each direction of road segment has two, three, four, or five lanes. The statistical results verify that the number of lanes does have an evident effect on the platoon dispersion factor α: when the number of lanes grows from two to five, the value of decreases significantly; meanwhile, the slope of the function curve between and the normalized flow becomes larger.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 139 • Issue 2 • February 2013
Pages: 200 - 207
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 12, 2012
Accepted: Jul 17, 2012
Published online: Aug 22, 2012
Published in print: Feb 1, 2013
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