Analysis of driver's decision distance and merging distance in work zone area based on parametric survival models: With the aid of a driving simulator experiment

Work zones affect traffic safety and efficiency by changing the road condition and drivers’ maneuver. Therefore, it is important to fully understand drivers’ merging behavior in work zone related areas. In this study, a model framework composed of decision-distance analysis and merging-distance analysis was proposed, which could describe both decision-making and lane-changing process of merging behavior. A road environment with work zone was developed based on a driving simulator, and six scenarios composed of two levels of traffic volume and three different lane-end sign's locations were designed. Forty-two licensed participants, including 21 females (10 professional drivers vs. 11 normal drivers) and 21 males (15 professional drivers vs. 6 normal drivers) finally completed the experiment. Based on the experimental data, parametric survival models were established to analyze the effects of traffic sign location, traffic situation and driver characteristics on drivers’ decision distance and merging distance. The results showed that: (i) the lane-end sign's location affected the decision point of lane changing and further affected the merging distance. However, the effect was weakened when the sign was placed far away from the work zone; (ii) merging distance in high traffic volume condition was shorter than that in low traffic volume condition; (iii) work zone posed greater challenges for female drivers as they merged later than males, and females were reluctant to adjust their merging distance according to different gap conditions. The findings shed some light on the future improvement of traffic design and management in work zones.

[1]  Sterling A. Bone,et al.  Identifying the traits of aggressive and distracted drivers: a hierarchical trait model approach , 2006 .

[2]  Justin Geistefeldt,et al.  Capacity of freeway work zones in Germany , 2016 .

[3]  Andy H. Lee,et al.  Prevalence and factors associated with road traffic crash among taxi drivers in Hanoi, Vietnam. , 2013, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[4]  Virginia P Sisiopiku,et al.  Bottleneck Merge Control Strategies for Work Zones: Available Options and Current Practices , 2015 .

[5]  Patrick T McCoy,et al.  Dynamic Late Merge–Control Concept for Work Zones on Rural Interstate Highways , 2001 .

[6]  Elias B. Kosmatopoulos,et al.  Collision avoidance analysis for lane changing and merging , 1999, IEEE Trans. Veh. Technol..

[7]  Yun-tao Chang,et al.  Risk assessment model of bottlenecks for urban expressways using survival analysis approach , 2017 .

[8]  G. Yannis,et al.  Meta-analysis of the effect of road work zones on crash occurrence. , 2017, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[9]  Luis de Picado Santos,et al.  Crash risk evaluation of aggressive driving on motorways: Microscopic traffic simulation approach , 2014 .

[10]  Richard L. Dukes,et al.  Effects of aggressive driving and driver characteristics on road rage , 2001 .

[11]  R. Gutierrez.  Parametric Frailty and Shared Frailty Survival Models , 2002 .

[12]  H. B. Zhu,et al.  Analysis of traffic congestion induced by the work zone , 2016 .

[13]  Wuhong Wang,et al.  Modeling Lane-Keeping Behavior of Bicyclists Using Survival Analysis Approach , 2013 .

[14]  Xia Shi,et al.  Effects of altruism and burnout on driving behavior of bus drivers. , 2017, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[15]  A. Khattak,et al.  Effects of work zone presence on injury and non-injury crashes. , 2002, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[16]  Qiang Meng,et al.  Classification and Regression Tree Approach for Predicting Drivers’ Merging Behavior in Short-Term Work Zone Merging Areas , 2012 .

[17]  Harilaos N. Koutsopoulos,et al.  A microscopic traffic simulator for evaluation of dynamic traffic management systems , 1996 .

[18]  Xiaomeng Li,et al.  Effects of fog, driver experience and gender on driving behavior on S-curved road segments. , 2015, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[19]  Haibo He,et al.  Learning from Imbalanced Data , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering.

[20]  E Mitsopoulos,et al.  Investigating the calibration ability of young novice drivers relative to experienced drivers: preliminary findings from a driving simulator study , 2005 .

[21]  Kyeong-Pyo Kang,et al.  Dynamic Late Merge Control at Highway Work Zones: Evaluation, Observations, and Suggestions , 2005 .

[22]  Mohamed Abdel-Aty,et al.  Assessment of freeway traffic parameters leading to lane-change related collisions. , 2006, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[23]  Lily Elefteriadou,et al.  Lane-changing behavior on urban streets: a focus group-based study. , 2011, Applied ergonomics.

[24]  Saeed Asadi Bagloee,et al.  Crash analysis at intersections in the CBD: A survival analysis model , 2016 .

[25]  Zuduo Zheng,et al.  Recent developments and research needs in modeling lane changing , 2014 .

[26]  Qiang Meng,et al.  An improved cellular automata model for heterogeneous work zone traffic , 2011 .

[27]  Hanwen Yi.  An in-depth study of urban freeway onramp merge behavior and operational characteristics using videotaping and computer-aided image processing and data reduction methods , 2004 .

[28]  W. V. Winsum,et al.  Lane change manoeuvres and safety margins , 1999 .

[29]  P. G. Gipps,et al.  A MODEL FOR THE STRUCTURE OF LANE-CHANGING DECISIONS , 1986 .

[30]  Wayne A Sarasua,et al.  Evaluation of Interstate Highway Capacity for Short-Term Work Zone Lane Closures , 2004 .

[31]  Simon Washington,et al.  A parametric duration model of the reaction times of drivers distracted by mobile phone conversations. , 2014, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[32]  Vivek Bhise,et al.  Effects of Driver and Secondary Task Characteristics on Lane Change Test Performance , 2013 .

[33]  Xuedong Yan,et al.  In-depth analysis of drivers' merging behavior and rear-end crash risks in work zone merging areas. , 2015, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[34]  D. Parker,et al.  Anger and aggression among drivers in three European countries. , 2002, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[35]  Yao Yu,et al.  Time-dependent drivers’ merging behavior model in work zone merging areas , 2017 .

[36]  Gang-Len Chang,et al.  Simulation-Based Study on a Lane-Based Signal System for Merge Control at Freeway Work Zones , 2009 .

[37]  Haris N. Koutsopoulos,et al.  Integrated driving behavior modeling , 2007 .

[38]  Amit Shahar,et al.  Differences between taxi and nonprofessional male drivers in attitudes towards traffic-violation penalties , 2007 .

[39]  Mohamed Abdel-Aty,et al.  Freeway Work-Zone Crash Analysis and Risk Identification Using Multiple and Conditional Logistic Regression , 2008 .

[40]  Qiang Meng,et al.  Modeling speed-flow relationship and merging behavior in work zone merging areas , 2011 .

[41]  Wei Lv,et al.  Modelling of lane-changing behaviour integrating with merging effect before a city road bottleneck , 2013 .

[42]  Rami Harb,et al.  Operational Evaluation of Dynamic Lane Merging In Work Zones with Variable Speed Limits , 2011 .

[43]  Xuedong Yan,et al.  Effects of major-road vehicle speed and driver age and gender on left-turn gap acceptance. , 2007, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[44]  Stan Matwin,et al.  Machine Learning for the Detection of Oil Spills in Satellite Radar Images , 1998, Machine Learning.

[45]  Alessandro Nocentini,et al.  Speed behaviour in work zone crossovers. A driving simulator study. , 2017, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[46]  Lily Elefteriadou,et al.  Lane‐Changing Behavior on Urban Streets: An “In‐Vehicle” Field Experiment‐Based Study , 2012, Comput. Aided Civ. Infrastructure Eng..

[47]  Karel A Brookhuis,et al.  Effects of steering demand on lane keeping behaviour, self-reports, and physiology. A simulator study. , 2011, Accident; analysis and prevention.

[48]  Ping Yi,et al.  Synthesis of Unconventional Dynamic Merge Metering Traffic Control for Work Zones , 2010 .

[49]  Worku Y. Mergia,et al.  Exploring factors contributing to injury severity at freeway merging and diverging locations in Ohio. , 2013, Accident; analysis and prevention.