ABSTRACT
In this paper, we discuss the mechanisms for discretionary lane-changing behavior in traffic flow. NGSIM video data are used to check the validity of different lane-changing rules, and 373 lane changes at 4 locations in US-101 highway are analyzed. We find that the classical lane-changing rules of rule-based model cannot explain many cases in the empirical dataset. Therefore, we propose one new decision rule, comparing the position after a time horizon of several seconds without a lane-change. This rule can be described as “to have a further position within 9 seconds”. The tests on NGSIM data show that this rule can explain most (76%) of the lane-changing cases. Besides, some data when lane changes do not occur are also studied. We find that most (81%) of non-lane-changing vehicles do not fulfill the new rule. Thus, it can be considered as one sufficient and necessary condition for discretionary lane-changing.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. In these equations, we scale the speeds to gaps by assuming T = 1. This can be done without loss of generality by choosing the appropriate unit for time. Besides, the unit of all the velocities presented in this paper is m/s.
2. There are some special lane-changing cases in which G2 < 0, and we do not consider them in Figure . The discussion of these cases can be found in Section 5.