Drivers lane changing behaviour at urban intersection by using gap acceptance approach

A lane changing event can be defined as a purposeful and considerable move in the sideways position of a vehicle on a carriageway. This paper discusses driver's lane changing behaviour at urban signalized intersections with respect to critical gap analysis. The objectives of this study are to determine the lane changing factors with regards to the vehicle and geometrical characteristics as well as to determine critical gap of drivers whom change lane. This study were carried out at study locations which lane changing activities are identified as a frequent event due to presence of trap lanes and also due to drivers tendency to seek for shortest queue’s lane. In this study, the maximum likelihood method is used to determine critical gap. Based on the observation, the main factor which influences lane changing event is the flow rate of vehicle movements. Other factors that might as well influence are lane width of the roadway and traffic composition. The critical gap values are varying from 2.4 to 2.7 seconds which generally shows the aggressive behaviour of drivers. Aggressive driving behaviour may contribute to road accident and therefore with the findings in this study, responsible authority should consider a proper road safety intervention as accident mitigation measure