OPERATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WEAVING SECTIONS IN CHINA

The efficiency of traffic operation in highway weaving sections is a key factor in the capacity of the whole highway system. Hence, highway system planners, designers and engineers are concerned mostly with the design, analysis or operational management of weaving sections. The capacity and level of service of weaving sections are the issues frequently discussed in transportation analysis. In order to establish a Chinese Highway Capacity Manual, an effort as part of the work has been started to develop an analysis/design procedure for highway weaving sections in China. However, the complex and tense lane-change maneuver in the weaving sections causes traffic operation to be very different from other components of the highway system, so the traffic operation characteristics must be studied first in order to analyze or conduct a study of the problems of highway weaving sections. Sponsored by the Ministry of Communication of the People's Republic of China, an operational study effort was conducted. The authors present the field data collection process and the results in this paper. The field data include measurements such as traffic volume, travel speed, lane distribution, acceleration, deceleration and so on. According to the field data, the authors analyze the operational conditions and situation in weaving sections in China.