MOBIL: General Lane-Changing Model for Car-Following Models

We propose a general model to derive lane-changing rules for discretionary and mandatory lane changes for a wide class of car-following models. Both the utility of a given lane and the risk associated with lane changes is determined in terms of longitudinal accelerations calculated with the microscopic traffic models. This allows for the formulation of compact and general safety and incentive criteria both for symmetric and asymmetric passing rules. Moreover, anticipative elements and the crucial influence of velocity differences of these car-following models are automatically transferred to the lane-changing rules. While the safety criterion prevents critical lane changes and collisions, the incentive criterion also takes into account the (dis-)advantages of other drivers associated with a lane change via the ’politeness factor’. The parameter allows to vary the motivation for lane-changing from purely egoistic to more cooperative driving behavior. This novel feature allows first to prevent change lanes for a marginal advantage if this obstructs other drivers, and, second, to let a ’pushy’ driver induce a lane change of a slower driver ahead in order to be no longer obstructed. This is a common phenomenon for asymmetric passing rules with a dedicated lane for passing. We apply the model to traffic simulations of cars and trucks with the Intelligent Driver Model (IDM) as underlying car-following model. We study an open system with an on-ramp and investigate the resulting lane-changing rate as a function of the spatial coordinate as well as a function of traffic density. Kesting, Treiber, and Helbing 3