01630086

Component

The U-turns at median openings affect the movement of approaching through vehicles leading them to either slow down or change their lanes towards the kerb side just to avoid the conflict with U-turn. The present study applies Markov’s process to estimate lane changing patterns of approaching through vehicles due to the presence of U-turns. The approaching through vehicles are generally found to start lane changing as they enter the slowdown section which is found to start at a distance of 40 – 50 m in the upstream of median opening. The entire road section is divided into equal parts of 10 m each from start of slowdown section to center of the median opening. The probability matrices are obtained by observing the lane changing patterns of approaching through vehicles in the first 10 m of slowdown section. Then the transition matrices are defined for each lane. Finally, markov procedure is applied to calculate the lane changing behaviour of the vehicles at all the successive segments of 10 m interval at various volumes of U-turns. The estimated lane changing probabilities obtained by applying Markov’s process are validated by comparing the values 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. In the end, a generalized distribution of approaching through vehicles at the center of the median opening is given for different U-turning volume levels.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AHB45 Standing Committee on Traffic Flow Theory and Characteristics. Alternate title: Assessment of Lane Changing Behavior Due to U-Turns Using Markov Process.

01618707

17-01905

English

24p

2017

Transportation Research Board 96th Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References; Tables

Behavior; Field studies; Lane changing; Markov processes; Median openings; Probability; Through traffic; Traffic flow; Traffic volume; U turns; Validation

Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2017 Paper #17-01905

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Dec 8 2016 10:40AM