MERGING FROM AN ACCELERATION LANE

A MODEL IS PRESENTED FOR MERGING FROM AN ACCELERATION LANE OF FINITE LENGTH. IT IS ASSUMED THAT A CAR IN THE ACCELERATION LANE TRAVELS AT SPEED V WHILE THE TRAFFIC ON THE MAIN ROAD TRAVELS AT SPEED U GREATER THAN V. A MERGING CAR REACHING THE END OF THE LANE STOPS INSTANTANEOUSLY. THE GAP ACCEPTANCE FUNCTION IS ASSUMED TO BE A STEP FUNCTION AND THE DISTRIBUTION OF HEADWAYS IS NEGATIVE EXPONENTIAL. AN EXPRESSION FOR THE EXPECTED DELAY IS GIVEN. THE CALCULATIONS SUGGEST THAT THE EXPECTED DELAY DOES NOT DEPEND STRONGLY ON THE LENGTH OF THE ACCELERATION LANE, AND THAT MOST OF THE MERGING OCCURS NEAR THE BEGINNING OF THE LANE. INCREASING THE LENGTH OF THE LANE BEYOND SOME NECESSARY LENGTH, SAY 600 FT, RESULTS IN RELATIVELY LITTLE FURTHER BENEFIT IN MERGING. /AUTHOR/

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/1767714
• Corporate Authors:

  Operations Research Society of America

  428 East Preston Street
  Baltimore, MD  United States  21202
• Authors:
  • Blumenfeld, D E
  • Weiss, G H
• Publication Date: 0

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References;
• Pagination: p. 161-8
• Serial:
  • Transportation Science
  • Volume: 5
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)
  • ISSN: 0041-1655
  • Serial URL: http://transci.journal.informs.org/

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Acceleration lanes; Length; Mathematical models; Merging traffic; Time; Traffic delays
• Uncontrolled Terms: Models
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00226348
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jul 9 1977 12:00AM