• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.151-172
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• 1994

The objective of study is to evaluate design standards related to the allowable truck speeds, taper length and sign requirements together with the operating practices and economic justification for climbing lanes. Field surveys were carried out on seven climbing lanes, three on two-lane and four on four-lane freeways. Data collected are traffic volume, speed, usage rate and delay. It is found that current design criteria for determining the length of climbing lane, taper lengths, and traffic sign requirements must be upgraded. It is also recommended that regulations on the use of climbing lane be established to make it more effective. Further, economic analysis revealed that the climbing lane is economically justified for two-lane and four-lane freeway if the AADT is over 4,577 and 5,116 vehicles respectively.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.59-72
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• 2012

In aspects of traffic operation, a climbing lane may cause traffic congestion if the volume of traffic (v/c) grows and the ratio of heavy vehicle increases. Conversely, it would be effective, if the climbing lane is dynamically operated according to changes in traffic flow. However, there are no guideline to effectively control this climbing lane in aspects of traffic operation. In this study, we examine the necessity of flexible traffic operation criteria and its process for dynamic traffic management and also establish and analyze the effect of flexible traffic operation criteria in accordance with traffic properties using an example of climbing lane. We selected the operation criteria (critical travel speed), which decides whether to operate or close the climbing lane when the average travel speed of climbing lane is 50km/h based on VISSM (microscopic traffic simulation) analysis of Nakdong junction towards Masan with the volume of traffic (v/c), ratio of heavy vehicle as the traffic operation parameters. Based on the simulation result in accordance with the volume of traffic by the operation mode of climbing lane, the analysis on the effect of dynamic traffic management of climbing lane showed that the dynamic traffic management provides more convenience compare to the operation and close of climbing lane. Thereby, we proved that the dynamic traffic management of climbing lane is more effective.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.91-97
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• 2010

This study started from the problem recognition of climbing lane installed in Korea roads. Because design standards of climbing lane installed don't match traffic pattern of korean drivers, coefficient of utilization of climbing lane is low and merging section between climbing lane and main lane has traffic accident possibilities. For this, brand-new design standards developed from the present lane design criterion, taper lenghs, and traffic signs, then field adoption test was carried out to prove the effectiveness. As a result, coefficient of utilization of climbing lane and average traffic velocity in climbing section are improved and the economic analysis also shows that brand-new standards has high feasibility for low cost. In case of broad application to not only expressway but national and local road based on the study, it could be a significant contribution to traffic flow improvement.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.19-28
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• 1999

This study deals with developing Critical GaP Model and Merge Probability Model which describe traffic patterns in the microscopic view, for the Purpose of suggesting a proper design criteria within the climbing lane section. Minimum tolerance speeds at the end of the climbing lane are calculated 60km/hr for 2-lane freeway, and 75km/hr for 4-lane freeway. In case of 2-lane freeway, the result is same as existing design criteria. and a new value is 15km/hr higher than existing design criteria for 4-lane freeway. In addition, auxiliary length at the end of the climbing lane is needed about 200m for 4-lane freeway to adjust high minimum tolerance speed. Therefore we propose to increase minimum tolerance speed for 4-lane freeway.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.17-28
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• 2010

A climbing lane is installed to separate low-speed traffic from high-speed traffic if drastic traffic capacity reduction is expected due to a large number of vehicles that slow down in the upward section. Existing studies on climbing lanes have focused on the designation, location of starting and ending points, and installation method of climbing lane with regard to road design standards. However, in terms of traffic operation, it was known that the climbing lanes cause traffic congestion due to the increase of traffic volumes. In this regard, this study aims to establish traffic operational guidance as to how much effects temporary closure of climbing lanes can have on traffic improvement according to the volume-capacity ratio, grade, and composition of trucks. A test section of simulated climbing lane was selected in Nakdong JC bound for Masan(136.9K~133.3K, 3.6km, 3.7%) on Jungbunaeryuk expressway to conduct VISSIM analyses, microscopic traffic simulation based on such control variables as traffic volume(v/c), grade and the trucks ratio. As a result of the analyses, it has been found that v/c and the ratio of trucks are the key variables for efficient traffic management of climbing lanes in order to relieve traffic congestion via climbing lane. If ratio of trucks are more than 50% and when v/c would be 0.8, both climbing lane would be closed and non-operated regardless of grade and ratio of trucks when v/c is 1.0. With the increased traffic due to a five-day work week system, continued peak hours during the weekday, increased and various patterns of congestion on expressway, this study would be expected to contribute to facilitating researches on flexible operational standards for road facilities.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.68-80
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• 2016

Interest in freeway truck traffic has increased largely due to greater safety concerns regarding truck-related crashes. The negative interactions between slow-moving trucks and other vehicles are a primary cause of hazardous conditions, which lead to crashes with larger speed variations. To improve operational efficiency and safety, providing a climbing lane that separates slow-moving trucks from higher performance vehicles is frequently considered when upgrading geometrics. This study developed an operations strategy for freeway climbing lanes based on traffic conditions in real time. To consider traffic safety when designing a dynamic strategy to determine whether a climbing lane is closed or open, various factors, including the level of service (LOS) and the percentage of trucks, are investigated through microscopic simulations. A microscopic traffic simulator, VISSIM, was used to simulate freeway traffic streams and collect vehicle-maneuvering data. Additionally, an external application program interface, VISSIM's COM-interface, was used to implement the proposed climbing lane operations strategies. Surrogate safety measures (SSM), including the frequency of rear-end conflicts and, were used to quantitatively evaluate the traffic safety using an analysis of individual vehicle trajectories obtained from VISSIM simulations with various operations scenarios. It is expected that the proposed algorithm can be the backbone for operating the climbing lane in real time for safer traffic management.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.99-109
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• 2014

PURPOSES : Climbing lanes on expressways managed by the Korea Expressway Corporation (KEC) have been hot potatoes due to conflicts between slow-moving vehicles such as trucks and other vehicles at the merging section as well as the less popularity with the slow-moving vehicles. In order to resolve such problems, KEC has altered existing climbing lanes to passing-type climbing lanes in 1999. The new type of climbing lanes showed an apparent improvement in mobility. For example, the speeds of vehicles using both climbing lane and other lanes improved a lot. However, there has been no clear evidence about improved safety. METHODS : This research effort was initiated to evaluate the safety of the new passing-type climbing lanes using the comparison-group(CG) method based on three-year-long traffic accident data sets before and after the change, respectively. RESULTS : The passing-type climbing lanes showed twice increased traffic accidents even though the traffic accidents on old type climbing lanes increased 1.1% during the same periods. In addition, in-depth study, the merging area of the passing-type climbing lanes was found out to be the weakest section where 43.8% traffic accidents out of total traffic accidents happened. It is noted that the merging area of the old type climbing showed only 25.0% traffic accidents. CONCLUSIONS : The new passing-type climbing lanes were found to be weak in terms of safety when compared with the old type climbing lanes. Especially, the merging area should be improved to reduce the risk of traffic conflicts between slow-moving vehicles and other vehicles.

• Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
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• v.32 no.5
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• pp.473-486
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• 2014

This study aims to review whether climbing lane installment is needed by analyzing the impact that standard trucks have on traffic according to vertical alignment at SMART highway, and if climbing lanes are required to propose truck speed change curves based on slope length. We used VISSIM simulation model to obtain the speed change of the standard truck on uphill roads. The standard truck on climbing lanes was set for 100kg/kW (170lb/hp) with the entry speeds set and analyzed by 90, 100, and 110 km/h considering the future speed limit of trucks. The results of the research show that under SMART highway circumstance, the 1 and 2% vertical alignment is not needed at the climbing lane but 3% vertical alignment is necessary. In order to install the climbing lane at 3% vertical alignment, the speed change curve of truck depending on slope length of 90, 100, and 110km/h of entry speed is proposed.

• International Journal of Safety
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.47-53
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• 2010

The speed difference in mountainous area is known causing traffic conflicts and accidents. Thus, climbing lanes have popularly been installed in mountainous roads around the world. In the present paper, vehicle speeds within and around climbing lanes of Ho-nam and Jung-ang expressway were collected and evaluated. The evaluation was performed in terms of coefficient of variations which represent dispersion of vehicle speed in climbing lanes. Results show that speed dispersion is more significant at segments before and after climbing lanes than those within climbing lanes. The estimated accident risk was evaluated using The Solomon's u-shaped curve. It was identified that the accident risk is also a lot significant at the same segments as much as 2.2 times greater than those of climbing lanes.

• 한국도로학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.11a
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• pp.279-284
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• 2009