Understanding Passenger Car-Heavy Vehicle Interactions and Conflicts on Roadways for Developing Proactive Traffic Safety Strategies

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Traffic crashes cause significant losses to society such as life and property losses, medical cost and traffic congestion. In particular, collisions involving heavy vehicles generally result in more severe injuries due to higher impacts of collisions on vehicle bodies. Since most heavy vehicles move at lower speed than light passenger cars, car drivers tend to adjust their speeds or change lanes to avoid conflicts with heavy vehicles. This driver behaviour leads to high variations in individual speeds and it increases the likelihood of driver errors and crash occurrence. Thus, better understanding of interactions and conflicts between cars and heavy vehicles is needed to establish traffic safety strategies to reduce crash occurrence and injury severity. The objective of this research is to understand how passenger cars and heavy vehicles change their behaviour when they are in conflict on roadways. The study will develop the driver behaviour models which reflect real-world vehicle interactions based on the observed driver’s car-following, lane-changing and gap-acceptance behaviour on freeways and at at-grade intersections. The study will also estimate the probability and severity of collisions using the traffic model built on the driver behaviour models, which mimics individual vehicle movements in car-heavy vehicle mixed flow. Using these models, the study will propose proactive traffic control strategies which will guide drivers to avoid vehicle conflicts and prevent crash occurrence. Prevention of crashes will save a substantial amount of social costs incurred by severe motor vehicle crashes. The improvement of heavy vehicle safety will also increase the efficiency of goods movement, facilitate international trades, and contribute to growth of Canada's economy.