GAP ACCEPTANCE IN THE FREEWAY MERGING PROCESS VOL II.

THE EMPHASIS IN THIS REPORT, VOLUME 2 OF THE FINAL REPORT, IS THE COLLECTION AND COLLATION OF GAP ACCEPTANCE CHARACTERISTICS. THE THEORETICAL DEVELOPMENT OF MODELS AND USEFUL PARAMETERS FOR DESCRIBING THE MERGING PROCESS INCLUDE' /1/ THE DERIVATION OF THE FORMS OF THE MEAN AND VARIANCE OF THE DELAY TO A RAMP VEHICLE IN POSITION TO MERGE, AND /2/ THE TREATMENT OF THE VARIABILITY OF CRITICAL GAPS AND GAP ACCEPTANCE AMONG DRIVERS THROUGH THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE REPRESENTATIVE FORMS FOR BOTH CRITICAL GAP DISTRIBUTIONS AND GAP ACCEPTANCE FUNCTIONS. THROUGH THE APPLICATION OF INDIVIDUAL RECORD PROBIT ANALYSES, SIMPLE STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT RELATIONS BETWEEN THE PERCENT GAP ACCEPTANCE AND GAP SIZE IS ESTABLISHED. USING THIS APPROACH, THE CHARACTERISTICS OF LAGS AND GAPS AND SINGLE AND MULTIPLE ENTRY MERGES ARE COMPARED, AS WELL AS FAST TO SLOW MOVING MERGING VEHICLES. THE PROBIT ANALYSES ARE GENERALIZED TO ESTABLISH A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERCENT ACCEPTANCE AS THE DEPENDENT VARIABLE AND GAP SIZE AND VEHICULAR SPEED AS THE INDEPENDENT VARIABLES. THE FACT THAT 32 RAMPS-CHOSEN TO REFLECT DIVERSE OPERATING, GEOMETRIC, GEOGRAPHIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS-WERE CONTINUOUSLY FILMED AT 5 FRAMES PER SECOND FOR AN AVERAGE OF AN HOUR, AND THAT ENOUGH DATA WAS COLLECTED TO RUN 1344 USABLE GAP ACCEPTANCE REGRESSIONS SERVE TO DEMONSTRATE NOT ONLY THE VAST QUANTITY OF DATA INVOLVED, BUT THE NATURE OF THE CHARACTERISTICS NOW AVAILABLE TO INTERESTED RESEARCHERS. /AUTHOR/