Design of Guidance Strategies Toward Better Driving Behavior in Typical Freeway Work Zones

Abstract

With the gradual increase in the demand for daily maintenance, repair, and expansion, work zones have become critical nodes influencing traffic flow characteristics in freeways. Timely guidance of driving behavior is a crucial means to enhance operational efficiency within these zones. This research focuses on the guidance strategy toward better driving behavior by considering the characteristics of different sections in typical freeway work zones. By analyzing four major types of adverse driving behaviors—distracted driving, emergency braking, aggressive merging, and slow driving—at vulnerable points within work zones, this study developed comprehensive guidance strategies from both road-side and vehicle-side approaches. Drivers’ compliance rates with these guidance strategies were assessed through static desktop cognitive experiments, and these strategies’ effectiveness in improving vehicle operational characteristics was verified using VISSIM simulations. The study results demonstrate that the proposed guidance strategies for driving behavior in freeway work zones enhance traffic operation conditions significantly. These strategies reduce travel time by 65.81%, decrease average delays by 71.98%, and reduce stops by 80%. Furthermore, the effectiveness of improvements varies among the four adverse driving behaviors. From the perspectives of shortening travel time, minimizing delays, and reducing queue lengths, the strategy targeting slow driving results in the most improvement, with an overall guidance rate of 56%, while the strategy addressing distracted driving results in relatively lower improvement at 33%.