Expected Safety Performance of Different Freeway Merging Strategies in an Environment of Mixed Vehicle Technologies
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 149, Issue 2
Abstract
This study evaluates different proposed merging solutions that reduce the conflict between merging vehicles and mainline traffic within a mixed traffic environment using a safety measure to see which strategy might work better than others under specific traffic conditions. The mixed traffic includes various percentages of driver-operated vehicles (DVs) and connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs). The probability of noncompliance (PNC) is selected as a surrogate safety measure to assess the strategies. A MATLAB program is developed to simulate various traffic conditions at a merging area and to calculate the PNC merging for the different merging strategies. In addition, to examine the relationship between PNC and collision frequency at the merging area, the collision data at 15 merging ramps in Ottawa were collected to examine the relationship between PNC values obtained from the simulation for the case of a full-DV vehicle fleet and no management strategy (current conditions) and actual safety performance. The results confirmed the validity of PNC as a surrogate safety measure that is correlated to expected collision frequency at merge areas. By simulating all proposed merging management strategies, the results of this study showed a general trend of decreasing PNC and, hence, improved safety performance since the CAV penetration rate increases even when no management strategy is used or under the do-nothing option. However, most merging strategies had better expected safety performance than the do-nothing option, which indicates the value of implementing a merging management strategy, especially during the period of transition from a full-DV to a full-CAV fleet.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data, models, and code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request, including the MATLAB program generated by the main author. Some data used during the study are available online in accordance with funder data retention policies at Open data: maps, apps & stories from the City of Ottawa (https://open.ottawa.ca/search?tags=transportation).
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario and the City of Ottawa for providing the resources for the required traffic data. Financial support by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) and Transport Canada’s Program to Advance Connectivity and Automation in the Transportation System (ACATS) is gratefully acknowledged.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 149 • Issue 2 • February 2023
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Dec 30, 2021
Accepted: Sep 30, 2022
Published online: Nov 26, 2022
Published in print: Feb 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Apr 26, 2023
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Business management
- Engineering fundamentals
- Highway and road management
- Highway transportation
- Highways and roads
- Infrastructure
- Intelligent transportation systems
- Models (by type)
- Practice and Profession
- Public administration
- Public health and safety
- Safety
- Traffic accidents
- Traffic engineering
- Traffic management
- Traffic models
- Traffic safety
- Transportation engineering
- Transportation management
- Vehicles
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Cited by
- Fayez Alamry, Yasser Hassan, Role of Freeway Ramp Geometry on Driver Acceleration and Merging Behavior, Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems, 10.1061/JTEPBS.TEENG-8571, 150, 8, (2024).