TRAVELING ROAD ESTIMATING METHOD AND TRAVELING ROAD ESTIMATING DEVICE

To accurately estimate a shape of a traveling road on which an own vehicle travels in a range including a front area of an intersection where the number of traffic lanes increases or decreases.SOLUTION: A traveling road estimating method estimates a traveling road on which an own vehicle travels, by using map data 2 in which a shape of each road comprising a plurality of traveling roads on which one or a plurality of vehicles can travel side by side is represented by an arrangement of a plurality of nodes. The traveling road estimating method includes: extracting a shape sR2 of a second road along which the vehicles travel in a direction facing the own vehicle along a first road R1 from the map data 2, the second road corresponding to a first predetermined range A including a front area of an intersection of the first road R1 on which the own vehicle is scheduled to travel; and estimating a shape of a traveling road on which the own vehicle travels in the first predetermined range A of the first road R1 based on the shape sR2 of the second road.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 6 【課題】車線の数が増減する交差点手前を含む範囲の自車両が走行する走路の形状を精度良く推定する。【解決手段】１又は複数の車両が並走可能な複数の走路からなる道路の各々の形状が複数のノードの配列により表現された地図データ２を用いて、自車両が走行する走路を推定する。自車両が走行する予定の第１の道路Ｒ１の交差点手前を含む第１の所定範囲Ａに対応する、第１の道路Ｒ１に沿って自車両と向かい合う方向に通行が行われる第２の道路の形状ｓＲ２を地図データ２から抽出し、第２の道路の形状ｓＲ２に基づいて第１の道路Ｒ１の第１の所定範囲Ａの自車両が走行する走路の形状を推定する。【選択図】図６