###### Abstract  
Frequent consecutive lane changes and the barrier effect produced by trucks can always contribute to rapid access to the capacity bottleneck at expressway exits, thereby reducing operational performance. This paper proposes to retrofit the conventional interchange design to reduce lane changes and compares them with conventional design and passenger vehicle and truck separation (PVTS) design from multiple fields via VISSIM numerical simulation, which is developed and calibrated with traffic data collected on the eight-lane expressway in China at four levels of service (LOS). Comprehensive evaluation (CE) results reveal that the PVTS strategy improves operational performance by 10-20% at multilane expressway exits, while lane separation around interchanges also yields a similar gain. However, ramps on both the left and right sides show less effective improvement and are even negative at LOS-A and LOS-B. All PVTS and improved designs produce a better comprehensive improvement ratio with a LOS decrease, and improved designs achieve optimal performance below LOS-B with construction cost taken into consideration. multilane expressway exits; design strategy; traffic data observation; numerical simulation; comprehensive evaluation +
Footnote †: journal: Applied sciences  
emphasize the gains from expressway charges and traffic restrictions. However, this approach fails to deal with the problem in the long term, and the travel restriction can be a nuisance for travel, as suggested by other articles [16; 17; 18; 19]. Optimization of traffic management strategies such as ramp metering, sign optimization, and dynamic guided detours can also positively contribute to congestion alleviation; these parameters were extensively investigated in research [20; 21; 22]. Nevertheless, the optimization of road geometry design can provide the most direct and effective approach to achieving a fundamental solution; thus, this paper presents an upgraded geometric design and traffic organization strategy for a multi-lane expressway diverging area with the aim of reducing lane changes. In addition, the authors also address the disturbance to exiting vehicles caused by the barrier effect produced by trucks, which can be effectively tackled with the PVTS strategy, which helps improve a transport environment and provide an essential idea for this paper [23; 24]. The emerging technology of numerical simulation has found extensive application in various disciplines. In the field of transportation, numerous studies have shown the reliable, effective, and economic advantages of using VISSIM numerical simulation [25; 26]. To ensure reliability and realism, it is essential to incorporate real traffic data in the development of the simulation model and the calibration of parameters to recreate specific traffic scenarios [27]. Furthermore, benefiting from the emergence of target detection algorithms, the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in data measurement can achieve better efficiency compared to conventional radar measurements [28]. Despite the fact that the VISSIM micro-simulation approach has been widely adopted in previous studies, those studies mainly focused on the evaluation of one aspect, such as conflicts, emissions, or delays [29; 30; 31]. To meet the sustainability objective, the design and construction of road infrastructure must balance factors that are not limited to traffic performance, such as construction costs and consumption. Therefore, comprehensive evaluation (CE) was introduced into this study. The core of the CE method, which aims to assign weights to indicators with different amounts of information, has been successfully applied in various fields, including economics [32], medicine [33], environment [34], and transportation [27]. Among those, the entropy method, which determines the weights based on the variability of indicators, is the most frequently used type of method [35]. Inevitably, however, the entropy method also possesses certain limitations as it ignores the correlations between indicators.