Empirical Study of Lane-Changing Characteristics on High-Occupancy-Vehicle Facilities with Different Types of Access Control Based on Aerial Survey Data
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 142, Issue 1
Abstract
Research on lane-changing behavior has been active for decades because of its significant impact on traffic operations. Most of the existing studies focus on generic weaving sections (e.g., on-ramps), and very few of them have investigated the lane-changing behavior along high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) facilities, especially in the context of comparing between different types of HOV-lane configuration or access control (i.e., continuous-access versus limited-access). In this study, extensive statistical analyses on lane-changing maneuvers have been conducted using a unique set of aerial photo data, which were collected from the same roadway segment before and after a conversion of HOV-lane configuration. To ensure the validity of this study, a Kalman filter smoothing algorithm was developed to clean the raw data. Results from this study indicate that the HOV-lane configuration has statistically significant impacts on lane-changing behaviors. For example, the lane-changing intensity (by location) along the continuous-access HOV facility is much more spread-out than the limited-access one. For merging into HOV-lane maneuvers, the time gap statistics (upon lane changing) are significantly different between the limited-access and continuous-access HOV-lane configuration. This study would be beneficial not only to the design of HOV lanes or other types of managed lanes, but also to the calibration of lane-changing behavior parameters in traffic microsimulation models.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This research was partially supported by California Department of Transportation. The authors are grateful for the feedback and comments received from the California Department of Transportation Project Panel. The authors also thank Eduardo Cuevas for his contribution in the data processing. The contents of this paper reflect the views of the authors, who are responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the data presented in this paper. The contents do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of the State of California. This paper does not constitute a standard, specification, or regulation.
References
Ahmed, K. I. (1999). “Modeling drivers’ acceleration and lane changing behavior.” Ph.D. dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
Arce, G. R. (2005). Nonlinear signal processing: A statistical approach, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ.
Choudhury, C. F. (2002). “Modeling lane-changing behavior in presence of exclusive lanes.” Master thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.
Du, Y., Wu, G., Boriboonsomsin, K., and Chan, C.-Y. (2013). “Empirical study on lane changing behavior along different types of high-occupancy vehicle facilities in California.”, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC, 143–150.
Jin, W. L. (2010). “Macroscopic characteristics of lane-changing traffic.”, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC, 55–63.
Laval, J. A., and Daganzo, C. F. (2006). “Lane-changing in traffic streams.” Transp. Res. Part B: Methodol., 40(3), 251–264.
Ma, X., and Andreasson, I. (2005). “Dynamic car following data collection and noise cancellation based on the Kalman smoothing.” IEEE Int. Conf. on Vehicular Electronics and Safety, IEEE, New York, 35–41.
Marczak, F. W., Daamen, F. W., and Buisson, C. (2014). “Empirical analysis of lane changing behavior at a freeway weaving section.” 93rd Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC.
Patire, A. D., and Cassidy, M. J. (2011). “Lane changing patterns of bane and benefit: Observations of an uphill expressway.” Transp. Res. Part B: Methodol., 45(4), 656–666.
Punzo, V., Borzacchiello, M. T., and Ciuffo, B. (2009). “Estimation of vehicle trajectories from observed discrete positions and next-generation simulation program (NGSIM) data.” 88th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC.
Thiemann, C., Treiber, M., and Kesting, A. (2008). “Estimating acceleration and lane-changing dynamics based on NGSIM trajectory data.” 87th Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC.
Wu, G., Du, Y., Jang, K., Chan, C.-Y., and Boriboonsomsin, K. (2011). “Preliminary evaluation of operational performance between different types of HOV facilities in California: Continuous-access vs. limited-access.”, Transportation Research Board, Washington, DC, 93–101.
Yun, M., Jing, J., and Chen, Z. (2013). “Lane change behavior at weaving section of signalized intersection upstream.” 4th Int. Conf. on Transportation Engineering, ASCE, Reston, VA.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 142 • Issue 1 • January 2016
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 6, 2014
Accepted: Jul 14, 2015
Published online: Sep 24, 2015
Published in print: Jan 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Feb 24, 2016
Authors
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.