United States Department of Transportation
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Characterization of arterial traffic congestion through analysis of operational parameters (gap acceptance and lane changing).
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2010-05-01
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Alternative Title:Management and safety of transportation systems
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Edition:Final report; Jan. 1, 2007-Dec. 31, 2008.
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Abstract:This project monitored an urban arterial highway to characterize recurring congestion. There were two major initiatives in the project. The first one focused on observed variations in gap acceptance and lane changing in relation to traffic flow rates on signalized urban arterials. The second one was a sensitivity analysis of observed lane change parameters compared to embedded parameters in current microscopic traffic simulation models.
Despite the robustness and wide spread use of microsimulation models for this type of analysis, gaps and limitations exist that can affect the accuracy of the results. Also, changes in driver behavior such as lane changing and gap acceptance under different traffic conditions are not well understood. One of the aims of this research was to offer enhancements to lane changing and gap acceptance models to improve the accuracy of microscopic simulation, particularly while simulating saturated traffic conditions.
Several general findings were produced during the study: traffic flows at signals approaching saturation are still complex to analyze; interactions between traffic parameters are not well understood; drivers take higher risks when flow on a signalized arterial approaches saturation (accept smaller gaps); statistical distributions obtained for gap acceptance and lane changes confirmed what is suspected intuitively, when the traffic flow is heavy the probabilities of drivers accepting smaller gaps and changing lanes rapidly are higher than during moderate flow; existing microscopic traffic simulation tools simplify some of the traffic parameters in simulation models, which may be recoded or recalibrated for better accuracy of simulation results. In addition to these general findings, multiple specific findings and recommendations were recorded for lane changing, gap acceptance, and simulation model parameters.
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