ABSTRACT
Co-operation, with its immediate and following ramifications, at lane constriction merge sites during road construction is highly conspicuous to drivers. A particularly noticeable and often frustrating instance of unsociable driving occurs at temporary lane closing sites when some drivers fail to merge appropriately into the single lane, electing rather to rush down the cleared space and force themselves into the line of traffic at the last moment. The techniques of engineering control theory have been usefully applied, in ostensibly non engineering contexts. Collision rates and types on post-lane restriction roadways could be related to theoretical time delay/phase lag characteristics developed from prior knowledge of traffic flow and “queue hopping” frequency. A public information campaign could be developed instructing drivers as to appropriate behaviour and consequences. Success of the programme could be assessed in terms of change in time delay of traffic as well as by collision rate and speeding rate at various points downstream from the lane constriction.
