• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.69-79
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• 1999

This study evaluated the chance of driver's Psychophysiological load of occipital lobe at freeway merging area and compared with basic driving section. Ten persons of 8 men and 2 women were investigated at 3 basic section and 3 merging areas on the Youngdong freeway. It is found that driver's load in acceleration lane before merging is 2.21 times higher than the basic driving section. Further, driver's load for merging was maintained fur 4 seconds after merging. Particularly, driver's highest loading point in merging behavior was found to be 80m from the gore area.

• KSCE Journal of Civil and Environmental Engineering Research
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• v.29 no.4D
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• pp.443-450
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• 2009

Uninterrupted facility - since there is a close relationship between traffic volume, speed and density -, when a ramp traffic flow merges into the main line, will change the traffic speed or density, and the corresponding correlational model equation will be changed. Thus, this study, using time and space-series traffic data on areas under the influence of such a merging, identified sections which changed the correlation between speed and density variables, and examined such changes. As a result, the upstream and merging sections showed the "Underwood"-shaped exponent, and the downstream after passing the merging section showed a straight line "Greenshields" model. The downstream section which changed the correlation between speed and density showed a gradual downstream movement phenomenon within 100 m-500 m from the end of the third lane linking with the ramp, as the traffic approached the inner lanes. Also, the upstream section, merging section, and downstream section involving a change showed heterogeneous traffic flows which, in the speed-density model, have a statistically different free flow speed (constant) and a different ratio of free flow speed to jam density (gradient).

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.17-31
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• 1988

In this research, the behavior of weaving traffic is studied in terms of lane-changing behavior and gap acceptance characteristics. General trends in lane-changing behavior and gap acceptance characteristics are investigated by analyzing descriptive statistics and the factors affecting weaving behavior are determined by means of the multiple linear regression analysis. The results of analysis show that the behavior of weaving traffic is generally similar to that in a basic freeway section and an on- or of- ramp section. Traffic density and speed appear to be better parameters than traffic volume for explaining the behavior of weaving traffic. For the same purpose, using the traffic conditions of the origin and the destination lanes are found to be more effective than using the average traffic conditions of the freeway. A detailed analysis of the gap acceptance characteristics of late merging vehicles shows that there is no significant difference between the size of gaps accepted by late merging vehicles and that accepted by early merging vehicles.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.155-172
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• 1996

This study is to analyze speed variation at merging section of successive entrance ramp and to suggest design criterion of ramp spacing at successive entrance ramp in urban area. The major findings are as follows ; (1) The relationship between the speed at merging section of successive entrance ramp and the distance from the merging point represents concave curve. (2) The 85 percentile speed(S) at outside lane (lane 1) is modeled S = 49.5 + 355.7(D/Q) - 0.94(D2/Q) + 6.78(D/AL2) where, D = Distance from merging point(m), Q = Lane 1 volume(vph) AL2 = Acceleration length at second entrance ramp(m) (3) The more traffic volume and the shorter acceleration length of the second entrance ramp, longer ramp terminal spacing is needed.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.5 no.8
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• pp.907-913
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• 1999

For an automated transportation system like PRT(Personal Rapid Transit) system or IVHS, an efficient vehicle-merging algorithm is required for smooth operation of the network. For management of merging, collision avoidance between vehicles, ride comfort, and the effect on traffic should be considered. This paper proposes an unmanned vehicle-merging algorithm that consists of two procedures. First, a longitudinal control algorithm is designed to keep a safe headway between vehicles in a single lane. Secondly, 'vacant slot and ghost vehicle' concept is introduced and a decision algorithm is designed to determine the sequence of vehicles entering a converging section considering energy consumption, ride comfort, and total traffic flow. The sequencing algorithm is based on fuzzy rules and the membership functions are determined first by an intuitive method and then trained by a learning method using a neural network. The vehicle-merging algorithm is shown to be effective through simulations based on a PRT model.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.97-114
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• 2022

Unlike ground roads, the on-ramp merging section of underground roads cannot be seen by drivers of main road due to tunnels. In this study, a driving simulator was used for analysis, and virtual driving experiments were carried out to assess the driver's visibility for different design factors. The driver's driving behavior was analyzed by setting scenarios considering the length of chevron markings and the approach speed from the main road. The results of the analysis were used to determine the design factors for ensuring visibility when constructing the virtual driving environment for each scenario. These factors, including speed, lane change points, and driver's gaze ratios, were reviewed for significance using a statistical approach. As a result, in scenarios with a higher approach speed from the main road, it was discovered that there was a difference in driver's behavior between specific scenarios depending on the length of the section with chevron markings. Based on these findings, this study suggests implications and feasible solutions to improve driver safety on the on-ramp merging section of underground roads.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.5-20
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• 1992

Even though the types of ramp facilities in Korea are not various like other countries operations in these sections are very important because ramp merging and /or diverging flow affects freeway overall sections. In this study existing methodologies especially the gap acceptance model and the regression model in USHCM are evaluated with our field data. By gap acceptance model the merging capacity is founded 2.360 pcph which is increased by 7% than the capacity of freeway basic section. And in comparison of actual lane 1 volume to the estimation volume by HCM model the model slightly overestimates the actual volue.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.217-228
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• 2009

Sections under the influence of merging in an uninterrupted facility create irregular interaction between vehicles, such as lane change, speed acceleration and deceleration because of the merging of ramp traffic flows which have traffic characteristics different from those of the main line. This causes a confused traffic flow phenomenon(turbulence), which is considered an unstable traffic characteristic between various continuous points in consideration of v conditions. In this study, in merge influence sections, detectors by lane-point were installed to create time and space-series -traffic data. The least significant difference(LSD), as the criteria for discriminating a significant speed change between points, was calculated to examine the turbulence. As a result, turbulence in merge influence section was found to change the zones of such occurrence and the seriousness levels according to traffic condition. Thus, the maximum merge influence section due to the turbulence was created in the traffic condition before congestion when traffic increases. According to characteristics of changes in speed, merge influence section was divided into upstream 100m$\sim$downstream 100m(a section of speed reduction), and downstream 100m$\sim$downstream 400m(a section of reduced speed maintenance and acceleration).

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.99-109
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• 2014

PURPOSES : Climbing lanes on expressways managed by the Korea Expressway Corporation (KEC) have been hot potatoes due to conflicts between slow-moving vehicles such as trucks and other vehicles at the merging section as well as the less popularity with the slow-moving vehicles. In order to resolve such problems, KEC has altered existing climbing lanes to passing-type climbing lanes in 1999. The new type of climbing lanes showed an apparent improvement in mobility. For example, the speeds of vehicles using both climbing lane and other lanes improved a lot. However, there has been no clear evidence about improved safety. METHODS : This research effort was initiated to evaluate the safety of the new passing-type climbing lanes using the comparison-group(CG) method based on three-year-long traffic accident data sets before and after the change, respectively. RESULTS : The passing-type climbing lanes showed twice increased traffic accidents even though the traffic accidents on old type climbing lanes increased 1.1% during the same periods. In addition, in-depth study, the merging area of the passing-type climbing lanes was found out to be the weakest section where 43.8% traffic accidents out of total traffic accidents happened. It is noted that the merging area of the old type climbing showed only 25.0% traffic accidents. CONCLUSIONS : The new passing-type climbing lanes were found to be weak in terms of safety when compared with the old type climbing lanes. Especially, the merging area should be improved to reduce the risk of traffic conflicts between slow-moving vehicles and other vehicles.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.195-205
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• 2001

The objective of the paper is to analyze the traffic characteristics for freeway merging area. Freeway merging area is different from basic section due to ramp vehicles. Therefore, to understand the traffic characteristics of (leeway merging area, this study focused on two factors including critical time headway required in merging maneuver and maximum possible merging volume. In this paper, new model that adopts critical time headway instead of critical time gap in calculating the maximum possible merging volume based on probability function was developed In previous studies, for calculating the maximum possible merging volume, it was considered that merging vehicles could merge freely if a given time gap was greater than the critical time gap. Also, the critical time gap was used as the same value in all traffic flow conditions. But, a time gap required in merging maneuver could be changed, even to the same driver, because difference of relative speed varies in different traffic flow conditions. So, in some cases, the critical time gap could be insufficient value in merging maneuver. Therefore, in this study. a calculating procedure for critical time headway in all traffic flow conditions was presented. Also, the maximum possible merging volume and capacity for freeway merging area were calculated by using the previously found critical time headway.