When Do Drivers Abort an Overtaking Maneuver on Two-Lane Rural Roads?

Overtaking another vehicle on two-lane roads is a complex driving maneuver. Drivers who desire to overtake a vehicle have to evaluate the available gaps in the opposite direction and accept a sufficient gap to complete the overtaking maneuver successfully. However, drivers often realize that the gap that they have accepted is shorter than what they actually need to complete the maneuver safely and therefore decide to abort the overtaking maneuver. Research studies have focused mainly on analyzing drivers’ decisions to accept or reject available gaps in the opposite direction and their overtaking performance. Very limited research has investigated the conditions under which drivers decided to abort or complete an initiated overtaking maneuver. Increased frequency of aborted overtaking maneuvers has negative implications for safety and the operation of two-lane roads. One hundred drivers from both genders and different age groups participated in a driving simulator experiment study. Driving scenarios with different geometric and traffic characteristics were developed. Detailed trajectory data of 670 overtaking maneuvers were collected; 554 were successfully completed, and 116 were aborted. A logistic regression model was developed to predict the probability that a driver will abort an overtaking maneuver. The results show that the probability of aborting an overtaking maneuver is significantly affected by the size of the accepted gap in the opposite direction, the desired driving speed of the driver, the speed and type of the front lead vehicle, the cumulative waiting time to find an appropriate gap on the opposite direction, the road curvature, and the driver’s age and gender.