Modeling the lane changing behavior of major stream traffic due to U-turns

Abstract

The presence of U-turns at median openings affects the movement of approaching through vehicles in terms of either slowing down or lane changing. The approaching through vehicles change their lanes towards curb side to avoid possible conflict with the U-turns. The present study applies Markov's process to estimate lane changing patterns of approaching through vehicles due to the presence of U-turns. These vehicles generally start changing their lanes as they enter the slowdown section which is divided into equal parts of 10 m each. First, the probability matrices are obtained for the first 10 m of slowdown section and subsequently the transition matrices are defined for each lane. Finally, Markov procedure is applied to estimate the lane changing probabilities of the vehicles. These estimated probabilities by Markov's process are compared with the lane changing probabilities obtained from field data. The probability of lane changing is found to be more at low U-turning volumes whereas this probability decreases with an increase of U-turns.

Keywords

• Lane changing
• Markov process
• Median openings
• U-turns
• Probability distribution