Study of Vehicles Lateral Movement in Non-lane Discipline Traffic Stream on a Straight Road

Abstract

Driving safety can be achieved by the prevention of risky situations which may require the knowledge of vehicle dynamic state as well as road geometry. In India the traffic condition is very complex in nature. There exists a mixed traffic flow with no lane discipline. Hence the lateral movement of the vehicles are very high due to no lane discipline. Lateral acceleration is one of the most important vehicle dynamic variables. Several studies are done by various authors on lateral acceleration in curves. It is also very important to study the lateral movement of the vehicle in case of straight road section to know the vehicles maneuver. The main purpose of this study is to observe the lateral acceleration, speed values in the moderate traffic conditions and to investigate the relationship between the vehicle longitude speeds with the lateral characteristics in the Indian traffic condition. Relation between lateral acceleration and heading angle with longitudinal speed is explored for the three different types of vehicles. There exists an inverse relation between longitudinal speed and lateral acceleration for all the three types of vehicle except at lower speeds. The vehicles rate of change of heading angle also reduces at higher speed.