Modeling Duration of Lane Changes

Lane changes significantly affect the characteristics of traffic flow. Lane-changing models are therefore important in microscopic traffic simulation. Existing lane-changing models emphasize the decision-making aspects of the task but generally neglect the detailed modeling of the lane-changing action itself and model it only as an instantaneous event. However, research indicates that lane-changing durations are on average in the range of 5 to 6 s. The omission of lane-changing durations from simulation models may have a significant impact on simulation outputs. Models of the duration of lane changes are presented. These models are estimated by using detailed vehicle trajectory data that were collected in naturalistic driving with high-mounted video cameras. Separate models are presented for passenger cars and for heavy vehicles and statistical tests are conducted for the similarity between the lane-change durations of the two vehicle types.