SUGGESTED PROCEDURES FOR ANALYZING FREEWAY WEAVING SECTIONS

Most speed-oriented methodologies have proved unsatisfactory in describing the behavior of freeway weaving sections. Research done at the Institute of Transportation Studies at the Berkeley campus of the University of California, with the support of the California Department of Transportation, has investigated several types of simple weaves using point flow estimation. For major weaves, a type of simple weave, an analysis method was developed using point flow estimates based on movement percentages. This methodology estimates point flows within 10% of the actual observations for 70% of the cases within empirical limits. For ramp weaves a regression-based set of equations to estimate total point flow directly has proven more effective. The equations predict total point flow within 10% of the empirical values for 90% of the data. The methodology developed for major weaves has been implemented in an interactive menu-driven computer program, FREWEV. This is the first step towards an integrated freeway model, FRELANE, which currently includes major weaves and ramp weaves.