Multi-lane changing model with coupling driving intention and inclination

Abstract

Considering the impact of drivers’ psychology and behaviour, a multi-lane changing model coupling driving intention and inclination is proposed by introducing two quantitative indices of intention: strength of lane changing and risk factor. According to the psychological and behavioural characteristics of aggressive drivers and conservative drivers, the safety conditions for lane changing are designed respectively. The numerical simulations show that the proposed model is suitable for describing the traffic flow with frequent lane changing, which is more consistent with the driving behaviour of drivers in China. Compared with symmetric two-lane cellular automata (STCA) model, the proposed model can improve the average speed of vehicles by 1.04% under different traffic demands when aggressive drivers are in a higher proportion (the threshold of risk factor is 0.4). When the risk factor increases, the average speed shows the polarization phenomenon with the average speed slowing down in big traffic demand. The proposed model can reflect the relationship among density, flow, and speed, and the risk factor has a significant impact on density and flow.