Determining a suitable distance before signalized intersections to start the mandatory lane change process of vehicles making a right turn

Mandatory lane change maneuvers near off-ramps of urban roadways jeopardize traffic efficiency. In this regard, management of these lane changes can reduce their negative effects on traffic flow. However, in past research, there is a lack of a proposed approach for the strategic guidance of these maneuvers in a zone before the right turns in signalized intersections. The present article seeks to address this gap, and determines a suitable distance before signalized intersections for starting the mandatory lane change process of vehicles making a right turn, based on their effects on four measures of effectiveness in Iran’s intersections. To this aim, Aimsun simulation software was used. Hence, at first, the geometric and traffic data of two signalized intersections were collected. In the following, the two main parameters of the Aimsun lane change model, i.e. Distance to Zone 1 and Distance to Zone 2, were proposed and estimated based on different distances and volumes (total of 52 scenarios) and in addition, for better calibration of the model, other parameters were also calibrated. In the end, the aforementioned process was performed to validate the results in another intersection, which confirmed the accuracy of the results. The simulation results indicate that the most suitable distance to begin such lane changes is a distance of 480 meters before the turning point of the downstream intersection.