Comparing heavy vehicle and passenger car lane-changing maneuvres on arterial roads and freeways

This paper investigates the behaviour of heavy vehicle drivers when making a decision or 4 executing a lane changing manoeuvre on arterials and freeways. Vehicle lane changing 5 manoeuvres often result in instability in traffic flow. The impact of heavy vehicle lane 6 changes can be even more serious than those of passenger vehicles because of the different 7 characteristics of the vehicle and the consequent driver behaviour. This is exacerbated 8 because the number of heavy vehicles and their share in traffic steam are increasing in many 9 countries, in particularly Australia. This paper presents an intensive literature review of 10 models of lane-changing behaviour. It was found that the lane changing manoeuvre of heavy 11 vehicles has not received enough attention. This is particularly true for heavy vehicle lane 12 changing on arterials, which has received no attention. This study applied real world data to 13 compare this behaviour to that of passenger cars. The behaviour of drivers is explored for 14 both arterial roads and freeways considering the impacts of the size of vehicles on the lane 15 changing manoeuvre. The results indicate the type and the size of vehicles influence the lane 16 changing manoeuvre in particular on arterial roads. This paper opens a new area for further 17 studies to investigate the microscopic behaviour of heavy vehicles in traffic steam with more 18 details. It leads us to develop a model incorporating the different characteristics of heavy 19 vehicle