Vehicle-following behaviour in mixed traffic – role of lane position and adjacent vehicle

In mixed traffic condition, varying vehicle dimensions and lack of lane discipline lead to parallel movement of vehicles in the same lane or between lanes. This results in a condition where the longitudinal response of vehicles gets affected by adjacent vehicles and their configurations. Correspondingly, the adjacent vehicle configurations are significantly influenced by the lane position of subject vehicle. To accommodate this scenario, the study formulates longitudinal acceleration models from trajectory data considering the influence of subject vehicle’s lane position along with adjacent vehicle characteristics. The response under different cases of subject vehicle’s lane position and adjacent vehicle configurations are evaluated. The statistical analysis indicates that the following behavior varies based on lane position of subject vehicle and adjacent vehicle attributes. It is also found that disregarding these attributes can produce significantly erroneous acceleration estimates. These features can improve existing following behavior models and can enhance the realism of the microscopic modeling scheme for mixed traffic conditions.