Probabilistic Analysis and Design of Freeway Deceleration Speed Change Lanes

Abstract

In highway design, knowledge about the design parameters and inputs is imperfect. Current geometric design guides provide deterministic methods for the design requirements by using conservative values to consider uncertainty. The design of freeway deceleration speed change lanes (SCLs) depends on the manner of deceleration, initial speed, and final speed at the SCL. SCL length should provide drivers with enough distance to diverge at a reasonable speed and decelerate comfortably. The purpose of this research is to develop probabilistic methodology for evaluating and designing freeway deceleration SCLs using reliability analysis. Models were developed to evaluate the operational performance of SCLs using field data. Three different methodologies were used for evaluating SCL length. PNC, which corresponds to the probability that drivers require a deceleration length longer than what is provided at the SCL, was calculated for each study site. Design graphs were developed to design based on PNC for lengths below 300 m. III

Reliability Analysis of Freeway Speed Change Lanes Using Naturalistic Driving Study Data

“…Section 2.2 explores pertinent works related to driver safety and behaviour at acceleration and deceleration SCLs, while Section 2.3 offers an overview of the literature on the use of NDS data, and finally, the chapter will be ended up with Section 2.4 which introduces the concept of reliability analysis, followed by the summary of the chapter. It should be noted that portions of Sections 2.1, 2.2 and 2.4 are adopted from the review of the literature by Abdelnaby (2014), Kanteti (2019), and Alamry (2021) .…”