PONE-D-24-24169An Analytical Delay model for Multi class and Lane free Traffic conditionPLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

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Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: This paper aims to propose a delay model for multi class and lane free traffic condition. Overall, I agree that a different delay model is needed under the new traffic operation mode, i.e., lane free traffic. My detailed comments are as follows:

1. It is stated that “Key features include ... lane-free movement prevalent in Indian traffic.” Please clarify how to consider the lane-free movement?

2. Some recent studies have described the two-dimensional movement. E.g., Developing an optimal intersection control system for automated connected vehicles, IEEE T-ITS, 2018; Unprotected left-turn behavior model capturing path variations at intersections, IEEE T-ITS, 2023; A behaviourally underpinned approach for two-dimensional vehicular trajectory reconstruction with constrained optimal control, TR-Part C, 2024. However, the authors did not mention them at all.

3. Model validation was not conducted using actual data, but rather simulation data was used as ground truth. Why can simulation be considered as ground truth?

4. Are the virtual lane numbers dynamically changing? According to the author's assumption, the virtual lane numbers seem to vary under different circumstances. How were they handled during model development?

5. How were the parameters in the theoretical model calibrated?

6. How are the datasets for model calibration and model testing distinguished?

Reviewer #2: 1. Literature Review is very short. A significant number of papers discussing lane-free roads should be included in this section.

please add and provide an explanation of the articles listed below:

• Papageorgiou, M., Mountakis, K.S., Karafyllis, I., Papamichail, I., Wang, Y.: Lane-free artificial-fluid concept for vehicular traffic, Proceedings of the IEEE 109 (2021), pp. 114-121. -

• Malekzadeh, M., Papamichail, I., Papageorgiou, M., Bogenberger, K.: Optimal internal boundary control of lane-free automated vehicle traffic, Transportation Research Part C 126 (2021), Article 103060.

• Malekzadeh, M., Papamichail, I., Papageorgiou, M.: Linear-Quadratic regulators for internal boundary control of lane-free automated vehicle traffic, Control Engineering Practice 115 (2021), Article 104912.

• Karafyllis, I., Theodosis, D., Papageorgiou, M.: Analysis and control of a non-local PDE traffic flow model, International Journal of Control 95 (2022), pp. 660-678. -

• Karafyllis, I., Theodosis, D., Papageorgiou, M.: Lyapunov-based two-dimensional cruise control of autonomous vehicles on lane-free roads, Automatica 145 (2022), Article 110517.

• Karafyllis, I., Theodosis, D., Papageorgiou, M.: Constructing artificial traffic fluids by designing cruise controllers, Systems & Control Letters 167 (2022), Article 105317. -

• Karafyllis, I., Theodosis, D., Papageorgiou, M.: Nonlinear adaptive cruise control of vehicular platoons, International Journal of Control 96 (2023), pp. 147-169. - -

• Malekzadeh, M., Yanumula, V.K., Papamichail, I., Papageorgiou, M.: Overlapping internal boundary control of lane-free automated vehicle traffic, Control Engineering Practice 133 (2023), Article 105435.

• Yanumula, V.K., Typaldos, P., Troullinos, D., Malekzadeh, M., Papamichail, I., Papageorgiou, M.: Optimal trajectory planning for connected and automated vehicles in lane-free traffic with vehicle nudging, IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Vehicle 8 (2023), pp. 2385-2399. -

• Karafyllis, I., Papageorgiou, M.: A particle method for 1-D compressible fluid flow, Studies in Applied Mathematics 151 (2023), pp. 1282–1331.

• Malekzadeh, M., Troullinos, D., Papamichail, I., Papageorgiou, M., Bogenberger, K.: Internal boundary control in lane-free automated vehicle traffic: Comparison of approaches via microscopic simulation, Transportation Research Part C 158 (2024), Article 104456.

• Naderi, M., Papageorgiou, M., Troullinos, D., Karafyllis, I., Papamichail, I.: Controlling automated vehicles on large lane-free roundabouts, IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Vehicle 9 (2024), pp. 3061-3074.

• Jin, X., Yu, X., Hu, Y., Wang, Y., Papageorgiou, M., Papamichail, I., Malekzadeh, M.: Integrated control of internal boundary and ramp inflows for lane-free traffic of automated vehicles on freeways. 25th IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC 2022), Macau, China, October 8-12, 2022, pp. 1234-1239

• Malekzadeh, M., Manolis, D., Papamichail, I., Papageorgiou, M.: Empirical investigation of properties of lane-free automated vehicle traffic. 25th IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC 2022), Macau, China, October 8-12, 2022, pp. 2393-2400.

• Papamichail, I., Schoenn-Anchling, N., Malekzadeh, M., Markantonakis, V., Papageorgiou, M.: Macroscopic traffic flow model calibration for lane-free automated vehicle traffic. 26th IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC 2023), Bilbao, Bizkaia, Spain, September 24-28, 2023, pp. 3485-3492

2. The quality of the fihures are not good. Please improve it.

3. Plaese explain more about the equations.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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PONE-D-24-24169R1An Analytical Delay model for Multi class and Lane free Traffic conditionPLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Vanajakshi,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by Jan 12 2025 11:59PM. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org . When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

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• A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.
• A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.
• An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols . Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols .

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Zhixia Li, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

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Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

Additional Editor Comments:

The manuscript has been thoroughly revised. The authors would need to respond/address Reviewer 2's comments.

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Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Partly

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: I Don't Know

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4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: I suggestions have been properly addressed. The current version can be published. I have no more comments.

Reviewer #2: The authors did not address my comments properly. I requested that they enhance the literature review and clarify the equation explanations, but they did not comply.

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

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An Analytical Delay model for Multi class and Lane free Traffic condition

PONE-D-24-24169R2

Dear Dr. Vanajakshi,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Zhixia Li, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #1: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #3: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #3: N/A

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4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

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6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: My comments have been adequately addressed. I have no more comments. The manuscript can be pubished in this version.

Reviewer #3: (No Response)

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #3: No

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