Research on Vehicle Intelligent Merge Control Strategy on Merging Area of Expressway Construction Section

Vehicles in expressway work zones where carriageways become narrow have to merge at the appropriate point in the upstream of the narrowed carriageway. Vehicles’ merging can cause aggressive driving behavior and result in serious safety hazards. Under different upstream traffic volume and traffic compositions, the spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of the point of convergence directly determine efficiency and safety. Based on the gap acceptance theory and highway capacity model, an intelligent merge control strategy for highway merging area is proposed, and the merge control thresholds considering many factors are given. This control strategy is significant in enhancing efficiency and safety, and in reducing the occurrence of aggressive driving behavior in merging area of expressway construction section. It is expected that the merge control strategy can get better promotion and application when combined with hardware equipment.