Discrete Choice Models for Gap Acceptance at Urban Expressway Merge Sections Considering Safety, Road Geometry, and Traffic Conditions
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 143, Issue 7
Abstract
A number of discrete choice models, including a multinomial logit model (MNL), a nested logit model (NL), and a latent choice set model (LCS), are applied to the representation of gap acceptance by merging vehicles (MVs) on urban expressways and their results are compared. The results show that all models give consistent signs to the estimated parameters. It is evident that the LCS model is capable of representing gap acceptance and allows exploration of the latent choice made by MVs. Comparison of the models shows that LCS is superior to the traditional MNL and NL models in terms of goodness of fit and provides a more realistic simulation of MV behavior. The effects of geometry and traffic conditions are fully considered in this study, and they are found to significantly influence the choices made by MVs. A longer acceleration lane may provide a relatively larger gap for MVs and, therefore, motivate them to accept the gap. With respect to traffic conditions, an MV tends to reject a gap under low () or high density () conditions. However, gap acceptance is more likely when the density is from 20 to . With regard to safety, the concept of time to collision (TTC) is adopted to capture the reactions of MVs to mainline vehicles (MLVs). Both leading and following TTCs (between the MV and the leading/following MLV, respectively) are implemented in the models. Analyses indicate that the TTC thresholds for an MV to reject or accept a gap are 5 and 6 s for the leading and the following TTC, respectively.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are very grateful to Professor Hideki Nakamura of Nagoya University for kindly providing the image processing system and giving advice on this topic. The authors would also like to thank Nagoya Expressway Public Corporation for generously supporting the collection of video data. Finally, the authors very much appreciate the anonymous reviewers for offering valuable comments that have led to significant improvements in our paper.
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Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 143 • Issue 7 • July 2017
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 3, 2016
Accepted: Dec 7, 2016
Published online: Mar 6, 2017
Published in print: Jul 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Aug 6, 2017
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