Until all vehicles are equipped with autonomous driving technology, there will inevitably be mixed traffic conditions that consist of autonomous vehicles (AVs) and manual vehicles (MVs). Interactions between AVs and MVs have a negative impact on traffic flow. Cloverleaf interchanges (ICs) have a high potential to cause traffic accidents owing to merging and diverging. Analyzing the driving safety of cloverleaf ICs in mixed traffic flows is an essential element of proactive traffic management to prevent accidents. This study proposes a comprehensive simulation approach that integrates driving simulation (DS) and traffic simulation (TS) to effectively analyze vehicle interactions between AVs and MVs. The purpose of this study is to identify hazardous road spots for a freeway cloverleaf IC by integrating DS and TS in mixed traffic flow. The driving behavior data of MVs collected through a DS were used to implement vehicle maneuvering based on an intelligent driver model in the TS. The driving behavior of the AVs was implemented using the VISSIM parameters of the AVs presented in the CoEXist project. Additionally, the market penetration rate of AVs, ranging from 10% to 90% in 10% increments, was considered in the analysis. Deceleration rate to avoid crashes was adopted as the evaluation indicator, and pinpointing hazardous spot technique was used to derive hazardous road spots for the cloverleaf IC. The most hazardous road spot was identified in the deceleration lane where greater speed changes were observed. Hazardous road spots moved downstream within the deceleration lane as traffic volumes increased based on level of service. The number of AVs decelerating stably increased as traffic increased, thereby improving the safety of the deceleration lane. These results can be used to determine the critical point of warning information provision for preventing accidents when introducing AVs.

PURPOSES : Because a driving simulator typically focuses on analyzing a driver’s driving behavior, it is difficult to analyze the effect on the overall traffic flow. In contrast, traffic simulation can analyze traffic flow, that is, the interaction between vehicles; however, it has limitations in describing a driver’s driving behavior. Therefore, a method for integrating the simulator and traffic simulation was proposed. Information that could be controlled through driving experiments was used, and only the lane-change distance was considered so that a more natural driving behavior could be described in the traffic flow. METHODS : The simulated connection method proposed in this study was implemented under the assumption of specific traffic conditions. The driver’s lane-changing behavior (lane-changing distance, deceleration, and steering wheel) due to the occurrence of road debris was collected through a driving study. The lane-change distance was input as a parameter for the traffic simulation. Driving behavior and safety were compared between the basic traffic simulation setting, in which the driver's driving behavior information was not reflected, and the situation in which the driving simulator and traffic simulation were integrated. RESULTS : The number of conflicts between the traffic simulation default settings (Case 1) and the situation in which the driving simulator and traffic simulation were integrated (Case 2) was determined and compared for each analysis. The analysis revealed that the number of conflicts varied based on the level of service and road alignment of the analysis section. In addition, a statistical analysis was performed to verify the differences between the scenarios. There was a significant difference in the number of conflicts based on the level of service and road alignment. When analyzing a traffic simulation, it is necessary to replicate the driving behavior of the actual driver. CONCLUSIONS : We proposed an integration plan between the driving simulator and traffic simulation. This information can be used as fundamental data for the advancement of simulation integration methods.