Identification and Factor Analysis of Traffic Conflicts in the Merge Area of Freeway Work Zone

The merge areas of freeway work zones include relatively significant safety hazards that have continuously led to urgent safety issues to be solved by the management departments. In order to make up for the cumbersome process of independent identification of rear-end collisions and lane change collisions on complex road sections, an appropriate identification method of traffic conflicts in the merge area of freeway work zone was explored, this study collected vehicle running tracking data from the merge areas of multiple work zones, using an unmanned aerial vehicle video technique. Based on an inter-frame difference method and the principle of a spatio-temporal context visual tracking algorithm, the vehicles were detected and tracked, and the coordinate data of the vehicles in continuous motion were parsed using MATLAB 2018b extension tools. Based on the behavior characteristics of vehicle conflict avoidance, a new identification method for evading severe traffic conflicts is proposed according to the initial velocity, acceleration, and accident rate of section traffic. Then, a statistical analysis was performed on the spatial distribution characteristics of the traffic conflicts in typical merge areas. The impacts of the road conditions in work zones, vehicle factors, and traffic flow factors on traffic conflicts were analyzed. A binomial logistic model was established to identify the main influencing factors. The results show that in the merge area of the freeway work zone, there are serious traffic conflicts between vehicles in the following two situations: (I) v ∈ [ 7 , 13.5 ] m/s and a ∈ [ − 3.96 , − 0.65 ] m/s 2 ; and (Ⅱ) v ∈ [ 13.5 , 24.3 ] m/s, and a ∈ [ − 3.96 , − 1.57 ] m/s 2 . The probabilities of serious traffic conflicts in the first and last 25 m of the merge area are greater than those in the other sections. The smaller the space between the upstream work zone and the merge area, the greater the probability of serious traffic conflicts between vehicles. When the average vehicle speed is relatively high, the probability of serious conflicts is the highest, i.e., by a multiple of 5.95 from the baseline. Moreover, the probability of serious conflicts between vehicles is higher for larger vehicles, i.e., 4.765 times that for small vehicles. The research results can serve as a reference for freeway management departments to improve the safety levels of merge areas during road work. For example, the probability of serious conflicts can be effectively reduced by setting up reasonable speed limit signs in the work zone, increasing the spacing between the work zone and merge area, and appropriately diverting large vehicles.