Beginning with Greenshields' ground breaking study, in 1947, a number of investigators have concerned themselves with descriptions of traffic flow at intersections. Very few studies have probed deeper to deal with the underlying psychology of the reacting driver. This latter approach, which is followed here, has the advantage that by revealing the drivers' general decision processes, it may provide an understanding of gap acceptance in merging, overtaking and passing manoeuvres as well. Control techniques which improve one of these performances may be expected to be effective in improving the others as well. Since few studies deal directly with the driver's psychology, w have been led in reviewing the literature to consider related studies. For example, papers by Robinson (II) and by Moore (9) on pedestrian gap acceptance have been included as well as Crawford's study of overtaking and passing (3). By contrast, statistical studies concerned with the distribute on of various sized gaps and similar problems have not been reviewed.
Abstract