Technical Papers
Jul 10, 2014

Logit-Based Merging Behavior Model for Uncontrolled Intersections in China

Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 140, Issue 12

Abstract

It has been previously documented that under the condition of crossing an uncontrolled intersection, the decision-making process of drivers is rather complex and highly interactive: they need to decide about the timing, direction, and strategy to complete the required maneuver to avoid potential conflicts. Given the significant impact of this behavior on intersection safety and capacity, we model the merging behavior of a straight-moving vehicle facing a turning vehicle at an uncontrolled intersection in China. We expect that this model can predict the probability that a straight-moving driver has a preemptive status (i.e., arrive at the merging point before the turning vehicle). The factors which determine the drivers’ decision behavior are analyzed, and then we propose a logistic regression model using a dataset collected from an uncontrolled intersection in Kunming, China. Our model reveals that the speed difference, the distance between the two vehicles, and the distance of the turning vehicle to the merging point are the major determinants of a straight-moving driver’s decision. In addition, the prediction results from our model are compared with real-world observations, and better validate the decision behavior model in China.

Get full access to this article

View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2012CB725404) and the Training Scheme for Excellent Researcher in Beijing “Intersection vehicle motion micro-behavior model and simulation.”

References

Ahmed, K. I. (1999). “Modeling drivers’ acceleration and lane changing behaviors.” Ph.D. thesis, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, MA.
Amundsen, F., and Hyden, C. (1977). “A traffic conflicts technique for examining urban intersection problems.” Proc., 1st Workshop on Traffic Conflicts, Institute of Transportation Economics, Oslo, Norway, 87–98.
Blumenfeld, D., and Weiss, G. (1971). “Merging from an acceleration lane.” Transp. Sci., 5(2), 161–168.
Chiou, Y., and Chang, C. (2010). “Driver responses to green and red vehicular signal countdown displays: Safety and efficiency aspects.” Accid. Anal. Prev., 42(4), 1057–1065.
Classen, S., et al. (2009). “The impact of intersection design on the driving performance of adults in the recovery phase of a turn.” British J. Occupational Therapy, 72(11), 472–481.
Dong, J. H. (2007). “The influential factor and construction of factor model of risk decision-making.” Master thesis, Northwest Normal Univ., Xi’an, China.
Drew, D. R. (1968). Traffic flow theory and control, McGraw-Hill, New York.
Einhorn, H. J., and Hogarth, R. M. (1981). “Behavioral decision theory: processes of judgment and choice.” J. Account. Res., 19(1), 1–31.
Elvik, R., Høye, A., Vaa, T., and Sørensen, M. (2009). The handbook of road safety measures, 2nd Ed., Emerald Group Publishing, London.
Ge, R., Zhang, W., and Wang, Z. (2010). “Research on the driver reaction time of safety distance model on highway based on fuzzy mathematics.” Proc., 2010 Int. Conf. on the Optoelectronics and Image Processing (ICOIP), IEEE Computer Society, Washington, DC.
Hamed, M., Easa, S., and Batayneh, R. (1997). “Disaggregate gap-acceptance model for unsignalized T-intersections.” J. Transp. Eng., 36–42.
Hidas, P. (2002). “Modeling lane changing and merging in microscopic traffic simulation.” Transp. Res. Part C, 10(5–6), 351–371.
Hossain, M. (1999). “Capacity estimation of traffic circles under mixed traffic conditions using micro-simulation technique.” Transp. Res. Part A, 33(1), 47–61.
Kaysi, I., and Abbany, A. S. (2007). “Modeling aggressive driver behavior at unsignalized intersections.” Accid. Anal. Prevent., 39(4), 671–678.
Kaysi, I., and Alam, G. (2000). “Driver behavior and traffic stream interactions at unsignalized intersections.” J. Transp. Eng., 498–505.
Kita, H. (1999). “A merging-giveway interaction model of cars in a merging section: a game theoretic analysis.” Transp. Res. Part A, 33(3–4), 305–312.
Lee, G. (2006). “Modeling gap acceptance at freeway merges.” Master thesis, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, MIT, Cambridge, MA.
Liu, Y., Chang, G. L., Tao, R., Hicks, T., Tabacek, E. (2007). “Empirical observations of dynamic dilemma zones at signalized intersections.”, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC, 122–133.
Liu, Y., Chang, G. L., and Yu, J. (2012). “Empirical study of driver responses during the yellow signal phase at six Maryland intersections.” J. Transp. Eng., 31–42.
Louisell, C. (2006). “A simple algorithm for quantifying the impact of driver behavior on traffic flow and safety during forced merges in work zones.” Proc., 85th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, CD-ROM, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC.
Lu, G., Liu, M., Wang, Y., and Tian, D. (2011). “Quantifying the severity of traffic conflict by assuming moving elements as points in intersection.” Proc., 11th Int. Conf. Chinese Transportation Professionals, Vol. 8, ASCE, Reston, VA, 893–900.
Ma, W., Liu, Y., and Yang, X. (2010). “Investigating the impacts of green signal countdown devices: An empirical approach and case study in China.” J. Transp. Eng., 1049–1055.
Madanat, S., Cassidy, M., and Wang, M. (1994). “Probabilistic delay model at stop controlled intersection.” J. Transp. Eng., 21–36.
Makigami, Y., Adachi, Y., and Sueda, M. (1988). “Merging lane length for expressway improvement plan in Japan.” J. Transp. Eng., 718-734.
Michaels, R. M., and Fazio, J. (1989). “Driver behavior model of merging.”, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC, 4–10.
Palat, B., and Delhomme, P. (2012). “What factors can predict why drivers go through yellow traffic lights? An approach based on an extended theory of planned behavior.” Saf. Sci., 50(3), 408–417.
Papaioannou, P. (2007). “Driver behavior, dilemma zone and safety effects at urban signalized intersections in Greece.” Accid. Anal. Prevent., 39(1), 147–158.
Parker, M. R., and Zegger, C. V. (1998). “Traffic conflict techniques for safety and operations: Observer’s manual.”, Federal Highway Administration, McLean, VA.
Pollatschek, M. A., Polus, A., and Livneh, M. (2002). “A decision model for gap acceptance and capacity at intersections.” Transp. Res. Part B, 36(7), 649–663.
Prasetijo, J., and Ahmad, H. (2012). “Capacity analysis of unsignalized intersection under mixed traffic conditions.” Procedia—Social and Behavioral Sci., 43, 135–147.
Ravi Gadepalli, S. B., and Tiwari, G. (2011). “Evaluating the impact of free left turns on traffic behavior at signalized intersections in heterogeneous traffic conditions.” J. Eastern Asia Soc. Transp. Stud., 9, 1700–1714.
Regan, D. (2002). “Binocular information about time to collision and time to passage.” Vis. Res., 42(22), 2479–2484.
Setti, J. R., Rakha, H., and El-Shawarby, I. (2006). “Analysis of brake perception-reaction times on high-speed signalized intersection approaches.” Proc., Intelligent Transportation Systems Conf. (ITSC ’06), 689–694.
Sharma, A., Bullock, D., and Peeta, S. (2011). “Estimating dilemma zone hazard function at high speed isolated intersection.” Transp. Res. Part C, 19(3), 400–412.
Shechtman, O., et al. (2007). “The impact of intersection design on simulated driving performance of young and senior adults.” Traffic Inj. Prev., 8(1), 78–86.
Suzuki, K., Fujita, M., and Yamaguchi, D. (2011). “Analysis of relationship among intersection geometry, users’ behavior and traffic safety based on before-and-after survey data.” J. Eastern Asia Soc. Transp. Stud., 9, 1839–1854.
Tao, R., and Wei, H. (2009). “Impact of indirect left-turning measures from driveways on driving behaviors and safety.” J. Transp. Syst. Eng. Inf. Technol., 9(3), 55–63.
Tiwari, G., Mohan, D., and Fazio, J. (1998). “Conflict analysis for prediction of fatal crash locations in mixed traffic streams.” Accid. Anal. Prevent., 30(2), 207–215.
Toledo, T., Koutsopoulos, H. N., and Ben-Akiva, M. (2007). “Integrated driving behavior modeling.” Transp. Res. Part C, 15(2), 96–112.
Toledo, T., Koutsopoulos, H. N., and Ben-Akiva, M. (2009). “Estimation of an integrated driving behavior model.” Transp. Res. Part C, 17(4), 365–380.
TRB. (1997). “Review of international practices used to evaluate unsignalized intersections.”, National Research Council, Washington, DC.
Troutbeck, R. J., and Kako, S. (1999). “Limited priority merge at unsignalized intersections.” Transp. Res. Part A, 33(3–4), 291–304.
Weng, J., and Meng, Q. (2011). “Modeling speed-flow relationship and merging behavior in work zone merging areas.” Transp. Res. Part C, 19(6), 985–996.
Wu, W., Juan, Z., and Jia, H. (2009b). “Drivers’ behavioral decision-making at signalized intersection with countdown display unit.” Syst. Eng. Theor. Pract., 29(7), 160–165.
Wu, Y., Yuan, H., Chen, H., and Li, J. (2009a). “A study on reaction time distribution of group drivers at car-following.” Proc., 2nd Int. Conf. on Intelligent Computation Technology and Automation (ICICTA ’09), IEEE Computer Society, Piscataway, NJ, 452–455.
Xiao, Y., Ran, Q., Yang, J., and Wang, Z. (2011). “Analysis and modeling of crossing behavior at urban intersections in china.” J. Transp. Eng., 121–127.
Yang, Q., and Koutsopoulos, H. N. (1996). “A microscopic traffic simulator for evaluation of dynamic traffic management systems.” Transp. Res. Part C, 4(3), 113–129.

Information & Authors

Information

Published In

Go to Journal of Transportation Engineering
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 140Issue 12December 2014

History

Received: Aug 14, 2012
Accepted: May 14, 2014
Published online: Jul 10, 2014
Published in print: Dec 1, 2014
Discussion open until: Dec 10, 2014

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Authors

Affiliations

Miaomiao Liu [email protected]
Ph.D. Candidate, Beijing Key Laboratory for Cooperative Vehicle Infrastructure Systems and Safety Control, Beihang Univ., Beijing 100191, China. E-mail: [email protected]
Yunpeng Wang [email protected]
Professor, Beijing Key Laboratory for Cooperative Vehicle Infrastructure Systems and Safety Control, Beihang Univ., Beijing 100191, China. E-mail: [email protected]
Guangquan Lu [email protected]
Associate Professor, Beijing Key Laboratory for Cooperative Vehicle Infrastructure Systems and Safety Control, Beihang Univ., Beijing 100191, China (corresponding author). E-mail: [email protected]
Research Fellow, Center of Excellence for New Market Innovations, China Mobile Research Institute, 32 Xuanwumenxi Ave., Xicheng District, Beijing 100053, China. E-mail: [email protected]

Metrics & Citations

Metrics

Citations

Download citation

If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.

Cited by

View Options

Get Access

Access content

Please select your options to get access

Log in/Register Log in via your institution (Shibboleth)
ASCE Members: Please log in to see member pricing

Purchase

Save for later Information on ASCE Library Cards
ASCE Library Cards let you download journal articles, proceedings papers, and available book chapters across the entire ASCE Library platform. ASCE Library Cards remain active for 24 months or until all downloads are used. Note: This content will be debited as one download at time of checkout.

Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.
ASCE Library Card (5 downloads)
$105.00
Add to cart
ASCE Library Card (20 downloads)
$280.00
Add to cart
Buy Single Article
$35.00
Add to cart

Get Access

Access content

Please select your options to get access

Log in/Register Log in via your institution (Shibboleth)
ASCE Members: Please log in to see member pricing

Purchase

Save for later Information on ASCE Library Cards
ASCE Library Cards let you download journal articles, proceedings papers, and available book chapters across the entire ASCE Library platform. ASCE Library Cards remain active for 24 months or until all downloads are used. Note: This content will be debited as one download at time of checkout.

Terms of Use: ASCE Library Cards are for individual, personal use only. Reselling, republishing, or forwarding the materials to libraries or reading rooms is prohibited.
ASCE Library Card (5 downloads)
$105.00
Add to cart
ASCE Library Card (20 downloads)
$280.00
Add to cart
Buy Single Article
$35.00
Add to cart

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

Share

Share

Copy the content Link

Share with email

Email a colleague

Share