Adaptability in transportation systems: A case study of drivers' gap acceptance characteristics

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Abstract
An empirical illustration of the adaptability of transportation systems as it is reflected in drivers' gap acceptance behaviour is presented. Field surveys were undertaken at several uncontrolled urban intersections that were carefully selected in order to clearly show the response of drivers on minor roads, in their gap acceptance behaviour, to varying traffic flows on the main roads. The collected data were initially examined in an aggregated form. In addition, the data were subdivided according to flow categories observed on the main road and examined individually. Results from the latter show that critical gaps decrease monotonically with increasing flow on the main road. When the results from the aggregated and disaggregated analyses were compared, discrepancies exceeding 100% were obtained for the estimated critical gaps as well as for the computed probability densities of critical gaps over the population of drivers. It appears that results from the disaggregated analyses, which give greater insight into how drivers on minor roads adapt to varying traffic flows on the main roads, affirm the view that improved understanding of drivers' gap acceptance behaviour can be realized by taking adaptive features into account.

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