Impact of Road Environment on Drivers’ Preference to Merging Location Selection in Freeway Work Zone Merging Areas

Abstract

In view of the compulsory merging behavior and complex driving environment in freeway work zones, the factors influencing drivers’ merging behavior need to be focused on the given road environment. Realizing the need to mitigate the impact of such a challenging scenario, this study aims to explore the impact of road environment on drivers’ merging location selection in freeway work zone merging areas. The survey data for modelling were collected through questionnaires survey based on the stated preference (SP) method. The logistics regression model was utilized to extract the significant factors influencing merging location selection. The results of fitting effect analysis show that the developed logistics regression models provide a good fit for the survey data. The road conditions and speed limit strategies are the significant factors affecting the drivers’ preference to merging location selection in upstream transition area. The road conditions, traffic environment conditions, speed conditions, and speed limit strategies are the prominent influencing factors to the latter part of advance warning area. It is a comprehensive analysis to consider the influence of road environment on merging location selection from the perspective of drivers, which is expected to support the merging control strategy and avoid the occurrence of traffic crash in work zones.

A New Surrogate Safety Measure Considering Temporal–Spatial Proximity and Severity of Potential Collisions

“…Xu et al [36] utilized a simulation platform using virtual reality technology to analyze the relationship between conflict risk and traffic flow or ramp metering. Other factors, including drivers' driving preferences, were also investigated [37]. Most of these studies primarily analyze the impact of traffic flow conditions and road conditions on conflict characteristics.…”

Impact of Transition Areas on Driving Workload and Driving Behavior in Work Zones: A Naturalistic Driving Study

“…The numbers of aggressive and conservative drivers in the work area were significantly higher than that of ordinary drivers, and drivers in the left lane were more aggressive than those in the right lane, resulting in vehicle speeds being too high or too low and increasing the dispersion of speed [19]. Wu et al conducted a questionnaire survey on drivers in work zones based on their stated preferences and found that road conditions, traffic conditions, transition area length, and speed limit were important factors affecting drivers' choice of merging location and traffic safety in work zones [20]. Duan et al constructed a multi-stage analytical model for lane-changing behavior in work zones based on a driving simulation, where the lateral and longitudinal acceleration of vehicles undergoing merging increases and the merging distance decreases when the traffic volume is high [21].…”