ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF HETEROGENEOUS TRAFFIC ON HIGHWAYS VIA AGENT-BASED SIMULATIONS

Rules that govern highways are very different across countries. For instance, in the USA, most of the highway traffic is comprised of cars and trucks; whereas in India, there are more types of vehicles that use the highway. Each vehicle type has its characteristics and capabilities, thus causing variation in driver preferences, especially the preferred-speed. We investigate if this heterogeneity leads to an increase in the number of lane changes, which could potentially lead to an increase in accidents. We use Agent-Based Modeling to compare the interaction between vehicles in two simulations, one representative of the traffic in the USA and the second representative of traffic in India. The results show that increased heterogeneity in vehicle types causes a significant increase in the number of lane changes. These results have broader implications for traffic policy-making and bring into focus the need for minimum-speed limits and dedicated lanes for slower vehicles.