Effect of Tunnel Environment on Driver Acceleration and Deceleration Behavior

Speed-change lanes including the acceleration lane and the deceleration lane provide drivers with a smooth transition between high-speed lanes and low-speed lanes. Because light levels change dramatically between the open tunnel section and the dark buried tunnel section, driver visual behavior will also change. Due to land planning limitations, these two complex road infrastructures are sometimes integrated in the same section of some road designs. Therefore, a driving simulator study was conducted in order to validate the safety of such a design. The results show that: (1) drivers prefer to change lanes in the open tunnel section rather than the dark buried tunnel section when entering or exiting the high-speed lane; (2) driver acceleration behavior is affected by the tunnel when entering the high-speed lane; and (3) driver deceleration behavior seems to be unaffected by the tunnel when exiting the high-speed lane.