Gap acceptance for left turns from the major road at unsignalized intersections

This paper attempts to identify factors that may influence the gap acceptance behavior of drivers who turn left from the major road at unsignalized intersections. Drivers’ accepted and rejected gaps as well as their age and gender were collected at six unsignalized intersections with both two and fo...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Hongmei Zhou, John N. Ivan, Per E. Gårder, Nalini Ravishanker
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Vilnius Gediminas Technical University 2017-07-01
Series:Transport
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.vgtu.lt/index.php/Transport/article/view/856
_version_ 1818876957951000576
author Hongmei Zhou
John N. Ivan
Per E. Gårder
Nalini Ravishanker
author_facet Hongmei Zhou
John N. Ivan
Per E. Gårder
Nalini Ravishanker
author_sort Hongmei Zhou
collection DOAJ
description This paper attempts to identify factors that may influence the gap acceptance behavior of drivers who turn left from the major road at unsignalized intersections. Drivers’ accepted and rejected gaps as well as their age and gender were collected at six unsignalized intersections with both two and four lanes on the major road, with and without the presence of a Left-Turn Lane (LTL), and with both high and low Speed Limits (SLs). Whether or not a driver accepts a given gap was considered as a binary decision and correlated logit models were used to estimate the probability of accepting a gap. Models with different factors were tested and the best model was selected by the quasi-likelihood information criterion. The gap duration, the number of rejected gaps, the mean and total time interval of the rejected gaps and the gender of the driver were all significant in explaining the variation of the gap acceptance probability, whereas the number of lanes of the major road, the presence of LTL, the SL and the driver’s age category were not. Gap acceptance probability functions were determined based on the best model, including both the factors of the number of rejected gaps and the mean time interval of the rejected gaps. As the values of these two factors increase, the probability of accepting a given gap rises up. The developed model can be further applied in practice to improve the analysis of traffic operations and capacity at unsignalized intersections. First published online: 10 Jul 2014
first_indexed 2024-12-19T13:50:39Z
format Article
id doaj.art-afbae5e9b92d41418c6a2e5406d910e7
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 1648-4142
1648-3480
language English
last_indexed 2024-12-19T13:50:39Z
publishDate 2017-07-01
publisher Vilnius Gediminas Technical University
record_format Article
series Transport
spelling doaj.art-afbae5e9b92d41418c6a2e5406d910e72022-12-21T20:18:45ZengVilnius Gediminas Technical UniversityTransport1648-41421648-34802017-07-0132310.3846/16484142.2014.933445Gap acceptance for left turns from the major road at unsignalized intersectionsHongmei Zhou0John N. Ivan1Per E. Gårder2Nalini Ravishanker3College of Transportation & Logistics, Dalian University of Technology, ChinaDept of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Connecticut, United StatesDept of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Maine, United StatesDept of Statistics, University of Connecticut, United StatesThis paper attempts to identify factors that may influence the gap acceptance behavior of drivers who turn left from the major road at unsignalized intersections. Drivers’ accepted and rejected gaps as well as their age and gender were collected at six unsignalized intersections with both two and four lanes on the major road, with and without the presence of a Left-Turn Lane (LTL), and with both high and low Speed Limits (SLs). Whether or not a driver accepts a given gap was considered as a binary decision and correlated logit models were used to estimate the probability of accepting a gap. Models with different factors were tested and the best model was selected by the quasi-likelihood information criterion. The gap duration, the number of rejected gaps, the mean and total time interval of the rejected gaps and the gender of the driver were all significant in explaining the variation of the gap acceptance probability, whereas the number of lanes of the major road, the presence of LTL, the SL and the driver’s age category were not. Gap acceptance probability functions were determined based on the best model, including both the factors of the number of rejected gaps and the mean time interval of the rejected gaps. As the values of these two factors increase, the probability of accepting a given gap rises up. The developed model can be further applied in practice to improve the analysis of traffic operations and capacity at unsignalized intersections. First published online: 10 Jul 2014https://journals.vgtu.lt/index.php/Transport/article/view/856unsignalized intersectionleft turn; gap acceptancecorrelated logit modeltraffic operations
spellingShingle Hongmei Zhou
John N. Ivan
Per E. Gårder
Nalini Ravishanker
Gap acceptance for left turns from the major road at unsignalized intersections
Transport
unsignalized intersection
left turn; gap acceptance
correlated logit model
traffic operations
title Gap acceptance for left turns from the major road at unsignalized intersections
title_full Gap acceptance for left turns from the major road at unsignalized intersections
title_fullStr Gap acceptance for left turns from the major road at unsignalized intersections
title_full_unstemmed Gap acceptance for left turns from the major road at unsignalized intersections
title_short Gap acceptance for left turns from the major road at unsignalized intersections
title_sort gap acceptance for left turns from the major road at unsignalized intersections
topic unsignalized intersection
left turn; gap acceptance
correlated logit model
traffic operations
url https://journals.vgtu.lt/index.php/Transport/article/view/856
work_keys_str_mv AT hongmeizhou gapacceptanceforleftturnsfromthemajorroadatunsignalizedintersections
AT johnnivan gapacceptanceforleftturnsfromthemajorroadatunsignalizedintersections
AT peregarder gapacceptanceforleftturnsfromthemajorroadatunsignalizedintersections
AT naliniravishanker gapacceptanceforleftturnsfromthemajorroadatunsignalizedintersections