On actions of long combination vehicle drivers prior to lane changes in dense highway traffic – A driving simulator study

Journal article, 2018

In this paper we address drivers’ actions prior to mandatory lane changes of long combination vehicles in dense highway traffic. The studied driver actions were: turn indicator activation, speed reduction and lateral intrusion. We categorised and compared the drivers’ actions with respect to the surrounding traffic cooperation and the level of urgency. Urgency here was based on the remaining distance to a targeted exit ramp. The results show that when the subject vehicle is close to the exit ramp, drivers used speed reduction significantly more than when the vehicle is further away. No significant difference was found for the use of lateral intrusion considering the distance to the exit ramp. As regards traffic cooperation, significant differences were found for both speed reduction and lateral intrusion. The drivers’ speed reduction and lateral intrusion were significantly greater when the surrounding traffic cooperation was low.