Freeways forman important part of the road network. Yet, driving behavior on freeways, in particular lane changes and the relation with the choice of speed, is not well understood. To overcome this, an online survey has been carried out. Drivers were shown video clips, and after each clip they had to indicate what they would do after the moment the video stopped. A total of 1258 Dutch respondents completed the survey. The results show thatmost people have a strategy to choose a speed first and stick to that, which is the first strategy. A second, less often chosen, strategy is to choose a desired lane and adapt the speed based on the chosen lane. A third strategy, slightly less frequently chosen, is that drivers have a desired speed, but contrary to the first strategy, they increase this speed when they are in a different lane overtaking another driver. A small fraction have neither a desired speed nor a desired lane. Of the respondents 80% use the right lane if possible, and 80% avoid overtaking at the right. Also 80% give way to merging traffic.The survey was validated by 25 survey respondents also driving an instrumented vehicle. The strategies in this drive were similar to those in the survey. The findings of this work can be implemented in traffic simulation models, e.g., to determine road capacity and constraints in geometric design.@en

Freeways form an important part of the road network. Drivers’ behavior can be split in longitudinal (acceleration and deceleration) and lateral behavior (lane changing). The combination of these two behaviors on freeways play a key role in traffic operations. This paper tries to describe the driving behavior, emphasizing the relation between the lateral and longitudinal behavior. To this end, an experimental study based on a test-drive and on-line questionnaire has been carried out. For the test-drive, 34 participants drove a vehicle equipped with monitoring systems. Based on the test drives a survey was developed regarding driving behavior in specific situations. This survey was answered by 1258 drivers who were questioned using videos for specific and relevant situations. The results show that most people choose a speed first, and stick to that. Fewer people adapt a strategy of having a desired speed which might change when they are in a different lane to overtake, or a strategy to choose a desired lane, and tries to adapt speed. A small fraction of the respondents mentioned that they have neither a desired speed or a desired lane. Most people (80%) use the right lane if possible, and 80% will not overtake at the right. 70% may have a courtesy behavior when needed. The outcome of this study has shed some light on the naturalistic driving behavior on freeways under different situations. The findings of this work can be implemented in traffic simulation programs, which are able to delay with this scale of traffic behavior. Repeating this survey in international context will reveal differences between drivers in various countries.@en

Hoe realistischer de mïcroscopische simulatiemodellen, hoe beter ze helpen bij de analyse en het management van verkeerssystemen. Dit soort modellen maakt gebruik van een volgmodel voor longitudiriaal gedrag (in de rijrichting) en een rijstrookwisselmodel voor lateraal gedrag (in de zijrichting) op (snel)wegen. Recent onderzoek onderscheidt vier soorten rijstrookwisselgedrag en verkent de verdeling van deze gedragingen over de totale groep gebruikers.@en