Investigating the Effects of Reserved Lanes for Autonomous Vehicles on Congestion and Travel Time Reliability

2017 ◽  
Vol 2622 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alireza Talebpour ◽  
Hani S. Mahmassani ◽  
Amr Elfar
Keyword(s):  
Travel Time ◽  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Potential Benefit ◽  
Flow Dynamics ◽  
System Level ◽  
Market Penetration ◽  
Travel Time Reliability ◽  
Fundamental Diagram ◽  
Mandatory Use ◽  
Daily Travel

Autonomous vehicles are expected to influence daily travel significantly. Despite autonomous vehicles’ potential to enhance safety and to reduce congestion, energy consumption, and emissions, many studies suggest that the system-level effects will be minimal at low market penetration rates. Introducing reserved lanes for autonomous vehicles is one potential approach to address this limitation because these lanes increase autonomous vehicles’ density. However, preventing regular vehicles from using specific lanes can significantly increase congestion in other lanes. Accordingly, this study explored the potential effects of reserving one lane for autonomous vehicles on traffic flow dynamics and travel time reliability. A two-lane hypothetical segment with an on-ramp and a four-lane highway segment in Chicago, Illinois, was simulated under different market penetration rates of autonomous vehicles. Three strategies were evaluated: ( a) mandatory use of the reserved lane by autonomous vehicles, ( b) optional use of the reserved lane by autonomous vehicles, and (c) limiting autonomous vehicles to operate autonomously in the reserved lane. Policies based on combinations of these strategies were simulated. It was found that optional use of the reserved lane without any limitation on the type of operation could improve congestion and could reduce the scatter in a fundamental diagram. Throughput analysis showed the potential benefit of reserving a lane for autonomous vehicles at market penetration rates of more than 50% for the two-lane highway and 30% for the four-lane highway. Travel time reliability analysis revealed that the optional use of the reserved lane was also significantly beneficial.

Effects of Connectivity and Traffic Observability on an Adaptive Traffic Signal Control System

2021 ◽  
pp. 036119812110130
Author(s):  
S M A Bin Al Islam ◽  
Mehrdad Tajalli ◽  
Rasool Mohebifard ◽  
Ali Hajbabaie
Keyword(s):  
Travel Time ◽  
Market Share ◽  
Signal Control ◽  
Market Penetration ◽  
Travel Time Reliability ◽  
Traffic Demand ◽  
Adaptive Signal Control ◽  
Loop Detector ◽  
Traffic Performance ◽  
Adaptive Signal

The effectiveness of adaptive signal control strategies depends on the level of traffic observability, which is defined as the ability of a signal controller to estimate traffic state from connected vehicle (CV), loop detector data, or both. This paper aims to quantify the effects of traffic observability on network-level performance, traffic progression, and travel time reliability, and to quantify those effects for vehicle classes and major and minor directions in an arterial corridor. Specifically, we incorporated loop detector and CV data into an adaptive signal controller and measured several mobility- and event-based performance metrics under different degrees of traffic observability (i.e., detector-only, CV-only, and CV and loop detector data) with various CV market penetration rates. A real-world arterial street of 10 intersections in Seattle, Washington was simulated in Vissim under peak hour traffic demand level with transit vehicles. The results showed that a 40% CV market share was required for the adaptive signal controller using only CV data to outperform signal control with only loop detector data. At the same market penetration rate, signal control with CV-only data resulted in the same traffic performance, progression quality, and travel time reliability as the signal control with CV and loop detector data. Therefore, the inclusion of loop detector data did not further improve traffic operations when the CV market share reached 40%. Integrating 10% of CV data with loop detector data in the adaptive signal control improved traffic performance and travel time reliability.

scholarly journals High-Resolution Traffic Sensing with Probe Autonomous Vehicles: A Data-Driven Approach

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 464
Author(s):  
Wei Ma ◽  
Sean Qian
Keyword(s):  
High Resolution ◽  
Autonomous Vehicles ◽  
Penetration Rate ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
Traffic Information ◽  
Flow Density ◽  
Massive Data ◽  
Market Penetration ◽  
High Resolution Data ◽  
Data Driven Approach

Recent decades have witnessed the breakthrough of autonomous vehicles (AVs), and the sensing capabilities of AVs have been dramatically improved. Various sensors installed on AVs will be collecting massive data and perceiving the surrounding traffic continuously. In fact, a fleet of AVs can serve as floating (or probe) sensors, which can be utilized to infer traffic information while cruising around the roadway networks. Unlike conventional traffic sensing methods relying on fixed location sensors or moving sensors that acquire only the information of their carrying vehicle, this paper leverages data from AVs carrying sensors for not only the information of the AVs, but also the characteristics of the surrounding traffic. A high-resolution data-driven traffic sensing framework is proposed, which estimates the fundamental traffic state characteristics, namely, flow, density and speed in high spatio-temporal resolutions and of each lane on a general road, and it is developed under different levels of AV perception capabilities and for any AV market penetration rate. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves high accuracy even with a low AV market penetration rate. This study would help policymakers and private sectors (e.g., Waymo) to understand the values of massive data collected by AVs in traffic operation and management.

Travel Time Reliability

2021 ◽  
pp. 109-121
Author(s):  
Sharmili Banik ◽  
Anil Kumar ◽  
Lelitha Vanajakshi
Keyword(s):  
Travel Time ◽  
Travel Time Reliability

Development and Evaluation of Cooperative Intersection Management Algorithm under Connected and Automated Vehicles Environment

2021 ◽  
pp. 036119812199458
Author(s):  
Slobodan Gutesa ◽  
Joyoung Lee ◽  
Dejan Besenski
Keyword(s):  
Travel Time ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Fixed Time ◽  
Optimization Method ◽  
Time Signal ◽  
Market Penetration ◽  
Automated Vehicles ◽  
Automated Driving ◽  
Concept Evaluation ◽  
Intersection Management

Recent technological advancements in the automotive and transportation industry established a firm foundation for development and implementation of various connected and automated vehicle solutions around the globe. Wireless communication technologies such as the dedicated short-range communication protocol are enabling information exchange between vehicles and infrastructure. This research paper introduces an intersection management strategy for a corridor with automated vehicles utilizing vehicular trajectory-driven optimization method. Trajectory-Driven Optimization for Automated Driving provides an optimal trajectory for automated vehicles based on current vehicle position, prevailing traffic, and signal status on the corridor. All inputs are used by the control algorithm to provide optimal trajectories for automated vehicles, resulting in the reduction of vehicle delay along the signalized corridor with fixed-time signal control. The concept evaluation through microsimulation reveals that, even with low market penetration (i.e., less than 10%), the technology reduces overall travel time of the corridor by 2%. Further increase in market penetration produces travel time and fuel consumption reductions of up to 19.5% and 22.5%, respectively.

Analyzing Travel Time Reliability from Sparse Probe Vehicle Data: A Case Study on the Effects of Spatial and Temporal Aggregation

2021 ◽  
pp. 036119812110315
Author(s):  
Markus Steinmaßl ◽  
Stefan Kranzinger ◽  
Karl Rehrl
Keyword(s):  
Travel Time ◽  
Time Of Day ◽  
Temporal Aggregation ◽  
Travel Time Reliability ◽  
Probe Vehicle ◽  
Vehicle Data ◽  
Depth Analysis ◽  
Data Source ◽  
Travel Time Index

Travel time reliability (TTR) indices have gained considerable attention for evaluating the quality of traffic infrastructure. Whereas TTR measures have been widely explored using data from stationary sensors with high penetration rates, there is a lack of research on calculating TTR from mobile sensors such as probe vehicle data (PVD) which is characterized by low penetration rates. PVD is a relevant data source for analyzing non-highway routes, as they are often not sufficiently covered by stationary sensors. The paper presents a methodology for analyzing TTR on (sub-)urban and rural routes with sparse PVD as the only data source that could be used by road authorities or traffic planners. Especially in the case of sparse data, spatial and temporal aggregations could have great impact, which are investigated on two levels: first, the width of time of day (TOD) intervals and second, the length of road segments. The spatial and temporal aggregation effects on travel time index (TTI) as prominent TTR measure are analyzed within an exemplary case study including three different routes. TTI patterns are calculated from data of one year grouped by different days-of-week (DOW) groups and the TOD. The case study shows that using well-chosen temporal and spatial aggregations, even with sparse PVD, an in-depth analysis of traffic patterns is possible.

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