Abstract:Merge bottlenecks, such as on ramp merge junctions, are the most common places where traffic oscillations and congestion initiate. At merging junctions, drivers compete for reduced space and are forced to interact. Previous studies suggest there are two dominant merging locations: one is at the beginning portion of the merging section and the other at the end portion of the merging section. The early and late merge location choice can be regarded as different route choice and is closely related with drivers’ lane change incentive in the merging process. Merge location choice observed in empirical data is replicated by microsimulation with selected car following and lane change models in this paper. Through traffic simulation, it is found that the choice of merge location contributes to the formation of stop-and-start waves and the period of these waves is closely related to the distance between the two dominant merging locations. Given different through and merging traffic demands, different traffic oscillation patterns on main and ramp lanes can be generated with deterministic merge location choice.