The Roles of Car Following and Lane Changing Drivers’ Anticipations during Vehicle Inserting Process: A Structural Equation Model Approach

Abstract

Anticipating ability is a skill that drivers count on to handle risky tasks in the traffic. This paper explores how the drivers of lane changing vehicle and its immediately car follower anticipate surrounding vehicles’ movements and adjust their manoeuvers during vehicle inserting process. The drivers’ anticipating mechanisms are modelled in the framework of structural equation model and estimated from field data. Results show that the change of lane changing type or traffic signal affects the drivers’ anticipation. Increased vehicle speed impels subject driver to anticipate driving condition in further future, but the stimulus is lower than the one coming from the kinematic comparisons of subject vehicle and other vehicles. The drivers care more about the vehicles’ interactions with which they are personally involved than the one to which they are only onlookers. The drivers’ responses to the counterpart vehicle’s movements depend on the progress of vehicle insertion and their roles in vehicle interactions.