Lane changing and lane utilization behavior for three lane normal section in Iraq traffic sites

الملخص EN

Recently, different programs or methods have been produced to solve the traffic problem everywhere in the world.

Iraq is one of the countries which suffer from high problems in traffic operation, design and planning.

Therefore, to use the sophisticated traffic programs or models such as simulation models there is an urgent need to investigate specified field parameters which correspond to calibrated parameters used in the model under study.

This study has focused on studying driver behavior which represents the core stone in a traffic simulation.

This behavior represents lane changing (LC) and lane utilization (LU) in normal sections.

Three normal sections with three lanes have been selected in different sites in Iraq: two sites in Al-Najaf city and one site in Al-Muthna city.

The results of data analysis show that the driver behavior in both LC and LU is similar to the behavior in the UK.

The current observed data could be used for the calibration process for any traffic simulation model in order to mimic the reality of Iraqi drivers.