A Statistically Based Model for the Characterization of Vehicle Interactions and Vehicle Platoons Formation on Two-Lane Roads

Two-lane roads are the most significant part of the road network in many countries, and are widely used for systematic and non-systematic daily travels. Traffic on a two-lane road typically involves a high level of interaction among vehicles, with the formation of platoons. As a part of the road network of a country, they represent a crucial development factor from a social and economic point of view, because they ensure the close accessibility of the innermost areas and local markets, and favor the connection between the nodal points of the logistic system and the last mile of the supply and distribution chain. Thus, the estimation of the presence of vehicle platoons makes it possible to develop significant indicators for performance analysis on this type of road, which in turn is the basis for planning, upgrading, and improving transport programs to find a sustainable balance between environmental, social, and economic qualities. This paper presents a statistically based model, the Two-Lane Roads Statistical Platooning Model (TLR-SPM), which allows for evaluating the percentage of vehicles which are free to travel at the desired speed and of non-free vehicles constrained to travel in platoons at lower speeds than desired, as a function of the traffic flow. Based on a data-driven methodological approach, TLR-SPM allows for going beyond the critical threshold value for time headways, such as the widespread 3 s threshold, but lacks the need to hypothesize, identify, or estimate the probability laws for speed and time headway. From the formal treatment of the general statistical method, the paper shows the data processing procedure through its application to a real case. As shown by the application case and the comparisons with the results of other methods, the proposed model can significantly adapt to the experimental data and can support in analyzing a two-lane road in its operating conditions to promote its safety and efficiency as part of a sustainable transport system.