Version 1
: Received: 2 May 2023 / Approved: 4 May 2023 / Online: 4 May 2023 (04:47:23 CEST)
How to cite:
Schakel, W.; Knoop, V.; Keyvan-Ekbatani, M.; van Lint, H. Social Interactions on Multi-Lane Motorways: Towards a Theory of Impacts. Preprints2023, 2023050193. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.0193.v1
Schakel, W.; Knoop, V.; Keyvan-Ekbatani, M.; van Lint, H. Social Interactions on Multi-Lane Motorways: Towards a Theory of Impacts. Preprints 2023, 2023050193. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.0193.v1
Schakel, W.; Knoop, V.; Keyvan-Ekbatani, M.; van Lint, H. Social Interactions on Multi-Lane Motorways: Towards a Theory of Impacts. Preprints2023, 2023050193. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.0193.v1
APA Style
Schakel, W., Knoop, V., Keyvan-Ekbatani, M., & van Lint, H. (2023). Social Interactions on Multi-Lane Motorways: Towards a Theory of Impacts. Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.0193.v1
Chicago/Turabian Style
Schakel, W., Mehdi Keyvan-Ekbatani and Hans van Lint. 2023 "Social Interactions on Multi-Lane Motorways: Towards a Theory of Impacts" Preprints. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202305.0193.v1
Abstract
Recent empirical work has revealed that drivers have different lane change strategies. These strategies help to understand driver heterogeneity and decision stochasticity, which are both often lacking in microscopic models. In this paper we generalize the lane change strategies in a theory for social interactions. The theory introduces a mechanism by which two new driver traits, ego-speed sensitivity and socio-speed sensitivity, endogenously influence other driver traits that govern lane change behaviour such as desired speed, desired headway and lane change desire. A key concept in this mechanism is that drivers are not just affected by what happens in front of them, but also by what they observe in their rear-view mirrors. The idea is that drivers reduce their headways to exert (social) pressure onto leading drivers (on the same or adjacent lanes), which may force them to increase speed, change lanes, or conversely, to refrain from changing lanes. We refer to this reduction of the headway as tailgating. Through an example implementation of the theory, we demonstrate that these social interactions may have a profound impact on several key (mesoscopic) traffic flow characteristics. Our results show that these new driver interactions influence the number of lane changes, platoon lengths, and headway variance. As such, the theory improves our description and understanding of traffic flow and consequently it paves the path for more realistic traffic models.
Keywords
driving strategy; social pressure; tailgating, lane changing; headway distribution; vehicle platoons
Subject
Engineering, Transportation Science and Technology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
