Collision avoidance analysis for lane changing and merging

One of the riskiest maneuvers that a driver has to perform in a conventional highway system is to merge into the traffic and/or to perform a lane changing maneuver. Lane changing/merging collisions are responsible for one-tenth of all crash-caused traffic delays often resulting in congestion. Traffic delays and congestion, in general, increase travel time and have a negative economic impact. In this paper, we analyze the kinematics of the vehicles involved in a lane changing/merging maneuver, and study the conditions under which lane changing/merging crashes can be avoided. That is, given a particular lane change/merge scenario, we calculate the minimum longitudinal spacing which the vehicles involved should initially have so that no collision, of any type, takes place during the maneuver. Simulations of a number of examples of lane changing maneuvers are used to demonstrate the results. The results of this paper could be used to assess the safety of lane changing maneuvers and provide warnings or take evasive actions to avoid collision when combined with appropriate hardware on board of vehicles.