Lane-based Evaluation of the Traffic Flow Quality of Service in Urban Expressway Weaving Segments Based on Lane Utilization Rate

Abstract

Weaving segments can be one of the crucial road facilities in terms of efficiency and safety on urban expressways. The traffic operation in weaving segment is different from the basic segment due to the crossing of multiple traffic streams. Also, quality of service (QOS) varies among lanes due to different lane utilization rate (LUR). Therefore, this study aims at establishing a lane-based evaluation procedure of QOS through developing LUR estimation models. With the data from two urban expressway sections in Nagoya and Tokyo, Japan, LUR is found to be significantly affected by cross-section flow, merging ratios, diverging ratios, and cross-section position. The model validation reveals that the model can reproduce traffic distribution. Lane-based average speed and density are adopted as measure of effectiveness (MOE), and level of service (LOS) criteria is determined by cluster analysis. Case study shows that the procedure can reflect QOS in each lane at every cross-section.