Exploratory Analysis of Lane Changing on Freeways Based on Driver Behavior

Lane changing has received much attention as it is a significant component of microscopic traffic simulation. Many studies have focused on the details of the lane changing maneuver from external observation-based data which do not consider the type of driver performing the maneuver. The research reported in this paper relates the physical details of freeway lane changing to the type of driver performing the maneuver. Forty-six research participants drove an instrumented vehicle and performed a combined total of 726 freeway lane changes. Each research participant was categorized into one of four groups ranging from conservative to aggressive based on cluster analysis. The data were analyzed to identify any trends between the different driver types and their lane changing characteristics, specifically lane changing duration and gap acceptance characteristics. In general, more conservative drivers have greater lane changing durations than aggressive drivers. The gap acceptance comparison among driver types did not yield any conclusive trend. In addition, distributions were fitted to lane changing duration and gap acceptance histograms. The results suggest that driver type impacts freeway lane changing behavior, and therefore should be taken into account when developing or refining simulation-based lane changing models. (C) 2014 American Society of Civil Engineers.