Impact of Regular and Narrow AV-Exclusive Lanes on Manual Driver Behavior
archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified
Get this paper ↗ (DOI — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)
Summary
This study investigates the impact of narrow (9-foot) automated vehicle (AV)-exclusive lanes on the driving behavior of human operators in adjacent regular lanes. As AV technology advances, infrastructure designers propose narrower lanes for AVs to maximize roadway capacity, given AVs' superior lateral control. However, the behavioral implications for human drivers sharing the road with these narrower lanes remain underexplored. The research specifically addresses how a 9-foot AV lane, compared to a standard 12-foot AV lane, affects the mobility and safety of manual drivers in mixed traffic conditions. The researchers conducted a driving simulator study using a fixed-base simulator at the SDSU Smart Transportation Analytics Research Lab. The scenarios mimicked the Interstate 15 smart corridor in San Diego, featuring a leftmost AV-exclusive lane, a middle lane driven by the participant, and a right lane for other traffic. Forty participants aged 18–25 were recruited in a gender-balanced sample. The experimental design manipulated four factors: AV lane width (9 ft vs. 12 ft), AV headway (1 sec vs. 3 sec), presence of traffic in the right lane, and driver gender. Data collected included mean lane position, mean speed, and self-reported mental effort. Statistical modeling analyzed main effects and interactions among these variables. The results indicated no statistically significant differences in mean speed or mental effort between the narrow and regular AV lane conditions. However, lane positioning showed significant variations. While the main effect of lane width was not significant, significant interaction effects emerged involving lane width, gender, and right-lane traffic. Generally, drivers exhibited better lane centering when adjacent to the 12-foot AV lane compared to the 9-foot lane. Female drivers tended to position their vehicles further from the 9-foot AV lane than male drivers, though females demonstrated better lane centering than males when traffic was present in the right lane. Additionally, the presence of right-lane traffic caused drivers to shift leftward, and smaller AV headways prompted drivers to move further away from the AV lane. Visual analysis suggested greater speed variation among drivers next to the 9-foot lane, though this was not statistically significant. The findings suggest that while narrow AV lanes do not significantly alter overall speed or mental workload, they influence lateral positioning, potentially impacting safety. The trend toward poorer lane centering next to 9-foot lanes highlights the need for design mitigations, such as highly reflective lane markings or physical barriers, to assist human drivers. The study underscores that driver demographics and surrounding traffic conditions significantly interact with lane width effects. Consequently, infrastructure adaptations for AVs must account for the behavioral responses of human drivers, particularly regarding lateral clearance and lane discipline, to ensure safe mixed-traffic operations.
Key finding
Drivers exhibited significantly better lane centering behavior when driving adjacent to a regular 12-ft AV-exclusive lane compared to a narrow 9-ft AV-exclusive lane, although no significant differences were observed in speed or mental effort.
Methodology
simulator
Sample size: 40
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed.
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | Crossref | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-05 |
| archive | success | canonical_url | — | — | 7 | 2026-06-06 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-07 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-07 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-06-07 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-05 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 15 | 2026-06-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
Topics
Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.
Information type
What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).
- Empirical Findings: behavioral performance data, observational prevalence
- Theoretical Contribution: computational model