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The interaction behaviors between merging vehicles and mainline vehicles at expressway-ramp merging area are very complex, and the driver characteristic is an important factor that affects driver behaviors, however, the existing driver behavior models little consider the influence of driver own characteristic differences on the driver behaviors. In order to represent vehicles merging behaviors accurately, and overcome the shortcomings of existing models, firstly, a typical merging section is selected to investigate field data, the video processing software VEVID is used to get larger amounts of vehicle trajectory data, and a lot of factors that affect driver characteristics and vehicle merging behaviors are analyzed. Then, the driver type model is built by the fuzzy clustering method, and the driver type distribution data is as a key parameter to develop the cooperative probability model and the forced probability model. Finally, the microscopic traffic simulation system MTSS is taken as simulation platform to build merging simulation model, the real merging section traffic data in Guangzhou is used to validate the built model, the output results from the simulation system are compared with the field data, the satisfactory results indicate that the built merging model can be used to describe the complex vehicle interaction behaviors of merging sections. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An estimation of the amount of bio-waste as an input of a biogasification system, which includes collectable bio-waste such as food waste and kitchen waste, is a key component for judging the profitability of a biogasification system. We propose a method to estimate the amount of collectable food waste (CFM) using binary logit model. Our CFM was then used to estimate the amount of collectable kitchen waste from households and food waste from businesses, such as retail outlets, restaurants, hotels, hospitals, welfare facilities, and schools. In addition, factors influencing the amount of collectable kitchen and food waste were clarified. As a result, the parameters of the binary logit model were determined, based on our preference investigation of households and businesses, which provided a good enough estimation of the cooperation ratio of the source separation of kitchen and food waste. Using the cooperation ratio of source separation in our binary logit model, the amount of collectable of kitchen and food waste was estimated to be 72 t per day, which is enough to ensure the profitability of a biogasification system. In addition, the price charged for kitchen waste from households and the permitted amount of improper materials in the mixture from businesses were found to be critical factors influencing the cooperation ratio of the source separation of kitchen and food waste. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]