Discretionary lane-changing behavior: empirical validation for one realistic rule-based model

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.

KEYWORDS:

• Discretionary lane change
• lane-changing model
• rule-based model
• NGSIM data
• non-lane-changing vehicles

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 4. The discussion of these cases can be found in Section 5.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China: [grant number 51478113, 51608115]; Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province: [grant number BK20150613, BK20150619], and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO).