Investigating the impact of a novel active gap metering signalization strategy on driver behavior at highway merging sections

A safe headway to the lead vehicle is important reduce conflicts with merging vehicles from highway on-ramps. Previous research has outlined advantage of gap metering strategies yield sufficient space and improve capacity during peak hours. However, prevailing systems fail indicate minimum required leave it drivers’ judgment adjust their headway. This paper proposes a new Active Gap Metering (AGM) signalization that helps outer lane drivers when approaching ramps incoming vehicles. AGM represents combination pavement markings an innovative Variable Message Sign (VMS). The system was tested alone in additional variable speed limits (VSL) distinct environments Doha Expressway State Qatar using driving simulator. behavior 64 analyzed repeated-measures ANOVA. results showed effectively influenced on right stream lane. Drivers did gradually increase distance vehicle, which resulted optimal headways on-ramp Most importantly, time-to-collision (TTCmin) increased by 1–1.5 s as compared no treatment. proposed can, therefore, be considered policymakers influence at critical sections.