The EU Commission has been active in the discussion of harmonising traffic rules and road standards in the EU countries. One of the rules in focus is the regulation by merging of entry to motorways. In Europe, it is only Sweden and Denmark that have a Merging Rule. This Rule means that road users in the right-hand traffic lane on the motorway have to assist the traffic entering from the ramp and if necessary reduce or increase speed. In the other EU countries the traffic from the ramps has to give priority (give way) to the main traffic when entering the motorway. The purpose of this project is to increase knowledge of traffic behaviour at entry ramps on motorways in EU countries with different forms of regulation, ramp geometry and behaviour. It is sought to examine motorist behaviour under both forms of traffic regulation. The project draws on two studies. The main study is a behavioural study based on video recordings from 12 ramps and supplemented by a minor psychological study of motorist behaviour based on parts of the same video recordings. The studies have been carried out in Spain, The Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. In the behavioural study different parameters were measured; entry lag, vehicle speed, speed difference, time gap, proportion of ramp vehicles entering in front, way of entry, and dangerous situations. The result showed that despite their respective rules about entering the motorway, ramp vehicles in all four countries in general enter the motorway according to the merging rule. The difference in results, especially in the number of dangerous situations, are more dependent on ramp geometry than on traffic regulations. The psychological study showed that motorist behaviour is more or less the same in the four countries seen from a psychological point of view. The main result was that the politeness of drivers varies from country to country. In Germany and Spain the drivers are polite but not as polite as in The Netherlands and Denmark. (A)
Abstract