Evaluation of real-world Toll Plazas Using Driving Simulation

2018PDFTech ReportBehaviorDriver performanceDriversDriving simulatorsHuman factorsToll plazasTraffic safetyHighwaysOperations and Traffic ManagementSafety and Human FactorssimulatorsVISSIMMassachusettsSafety Research Using Simulation (SAFER-SIM) University Transportation CenterKnodler, Michael A.Hajiseyedjavadi, ForooghUniversity of Massachusetts at Amherst. Dept. of Civil and Environmental EngineeringSafety Research Using Simulation (SAFER-SIM) University Transportation CenterUnited States. Dept. of Transportation. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and TechnologyUS Transportation CollectionThis report presents human behavior analysis at toll plazas through driving simulation. The same toll plaza from the first part of the study was modeled in Realtime Technologies Inc. (RTI) SimCreator software. The virtual world created for the simulator was a 600 m by 200 m (1968.5 ft by 656.168 ft) sketch of the West Springfield toll plaza. Five variables, including toll plaza lane configuration (i.e., which lanes were signed as E-ZPass and Cash), traffic queue (i.e., having a queue or not), traffic composition (i.e., having a leading heavy vehicle or not), origin-destination of the subject driver (i.e., right or left origin ramp, right or left destination ramp), and customer type (i.e., cash or E-ZPass driver), were defined, in order to find their effect on drivers\u2019 lane choice. The result of this simulation study is expected to give a better understanding of drivers\u2019 behavior at toll plazas and could lead to safer toll plaza designs. Also, the result could be used to modify and enhance drivers\u2019 behavior parameters in microsimulation software like VISSIM