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2025 Vol.43, Issue 6 Preview Page

Article

Analysis of Driver’s Behavior within the Permission Section for Lane Change of Underground Freeway

지하고속도로 진출을 위한 차로변경 허용구간의 운전자 주행행태 분석 연구

Juehyun LEE1
,
Seungwon JEONG2*
,
Dongmin LEE3
이 주현1
,
정 승원2*
,
이 동민3
1Ph.D Course, Department of Transportation Engineering, University of Seoul, Seoul 02504, Korea
2Research Professor, Department of Transportation Engineering, University of Seoul, Seoul 02504, Korea
3Professor, Department of Transportation Engineering, University of Seoul, Seoul 02504, Korea
1서울시립대학교 교통공학과 박사과정
2서울시립대학교 교통공학과 연구교수
3서울시립대학교 교통공학과 교수
*Corresponding Author
31 December 2025. pp. 862-874
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Abstract

This study experimentally analyzed drivers’ actual lane change behavior within mainline lane change allowance zones of underground freeways and evaluated the validity of the current criteria prescribed in design guidelines. The Design Guidelines for Underground Roads (MOLIT, 2023) currently specify lane change allowance zones by directly adopting the criteria developed for tunnels. However, these criteria were empirically derived under tunnel environments, and it remains necessary to verify whether they adequately reflect the actual driving environment and drivers’ perceptual characteristics in underground roads. To address this issue, ground and underground road environments with identical geometric conditions were implemented in a VR driving simulator, and drivers’ lane change initiation point, completion point, lane change distance, and remaining distance were quantitatively compared and analyzed. Under the 400m lane change allowance scenario, lane change initiation and completion in the underground environment occurred significantly later than in the ground environment, resulting in a reduction in remaining distance by more than 90m on average. In contrast, when the lane change allowance zone was extended to 500m by introducing an additional safety buffer, remaining distance recovered and driving stability improved; back-calculation from these results yielded an estimated perception–reaction time of approximately 8 second. These findings experimentally demonstrate that directly applying tunnel-based criteria to underground roads may fail to capture drivers’ delayed perception and decision-making in underground environments, thereby reducing maneuvering margin. Accordingly, lane change allowance zones in underground roads should be redesigned from a fixed-distance criterion to a time-based framework that reflects drivers’ actual perception–reaction times. This study provides quantitative evidence to support such a redesign.

Keywords
driving behavior
mandatory lane change
permission section for lane change
underground freeway
VR driving simulator

본 연구는 지하고속도로 본선 차로변경 허용구간에서 운전자의 실제 차로변경 행태를 실험적으로 분석하여, 현행 차로변경 허용구간 산정 기준의 타당성을 검증하였다. 현재 「지하도로 설계지침」(MOLIT, 2023)에서는 차로변경 허용구간을 터널에서의 기준을 준용하고 있다. 그러나 해당 기준은 터널의 환경을 고려하여 경험적으로 산출된 기준으로 실제 지하도로 주행환경과 운전자의 인지 특성을 반영할 수 있는지에 대한 검증이 필요하다. 이에 본 연구는 동일한 기하 조건을 갖춘 지상고속도로와 지하고속도로 환경을 VR 주행 시뮬레이터에서 구현하고, 운전자의 차로변경 시작지점, 종료지점, 차로변경 소요거리, remaining distance를 정량적으로 비교·분석하였다. 분석 결과, 차로변경 허용구간 400m 시나리오에서는 지하의 차로변경 착수 및 완료 시점이 지상보다 유의하게 후행하였으며, 그 결과 remaining distance가 평균 90m 이상 감소하였다. 반면, 여유거리를 적용하여 차로변경 허용구간을 500m로 확대한 조건에서는 remaining distance가 회복되어 주행 안정성이 향상되는 것으로 나타났으며, 이를 역산하면 운전자의 인지반응시간은 약 8초 수준으로 산출되었다. 해당 결과는 터널 기준을 단순히 지하고속도로에 적용하면 운전자의 인지·판단 지연 특성을 반영하지 못해 주행 여유가 부족해질 수 있음을 실험적으로 보여준다. 따라서 지하고속도로의 차로변경 허용구간은 고정된 거리 기준이 아닌 운전자의 실제 인지반응시간을 반영한 시간 기반 설계 체계로 재정립될 필요가 있으며, 본 연구는 이에 대한 정량적 근거를 제시하였다.

키워드
운전자 주행행태
강제적 차로변경
차로변경 허용구간
지하고속도로
VR 주행 시뮬레이터
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Information
  • Publisher :Korean Society of Transportation
  • Publisher(Ko) :대한교통학회
  • Journal Title :Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
  • Journal Title(Ko) :대한교통학회지
  • Volume : 43
  • No :6
  • Pages :862-874
  • Received Date : 2025-11-17
  • Revised Date : 2025-11-24
  • Accepted Date : 2025-12-09
  • DOI :https://doi.org/10.7470/jkst.2025.43.6.862
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