scholarly journals Developing Policy for Urban Autonomous Vehicles: Impact on Congestion

Urban Science ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 33 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Metz

An important problem for surface transport is road traffic congestion, which is ubiquitous and difficult to mitigate. Accordingly, a question for policymakers is the possible impact on congestion of autonomous vehicles. It seems likely that the main impact of vehicle automation will not be seen until driverless vehicles are sufficiently safe for use amid general traffic on urban streets. Shared use driverless vehicles could reduce the cost of taxis and a wider range of public transport vehicles could be economic. Individually owned autonomous vehicles would have the ability to travel unoccupied and may need to be regulated where this might add to congestion. It is possible that autonomous vehicles could provide mobility services at lower cost and wider scope, such that private car use in urban areas could decline and congestion reduce. City authorities should be alert to these possibilities in developing transport policy.

2014 ◽  
Vol 926-930 ◽  
pp. 3790-3793
Author(s):  
Yu Bo Dong

Compared with the expressway, most of the traffic flow in urban road network can be denoted as interrupted traffic flow. Based on the current employed equipment for traffic flow collection and traffic signal control in urban roads, different types of traffic flow in urban roads are analyzed with the traffic flow arrival/departure model in transportation engineering. Mathematical models complying with traffic flow changes are utilized to match the traffic flow in both entry and exit road blocks, thus, enabled the automatic detection of traffic incident. This algorithm provides a measurement for the automatic judgment of urban road congestion and the expansion utility of intelligent transportation facilities in urban areas.


2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jamal Raiyn

Abstract This paper introduces a new scheme for road traffic management in smart cities, aimed at reducing road traffic congestion. The scheme is based on a combination of searching, updating, and allocation techniques (SUA). An SUA approach is proposed to reduce the processing time for forecasting the conditions of all road sections in real-time, which is typically considerable and complex. It searches for the shortest route based on historical observations, then computes travel time forecasts based on vehicular location in real-time. Using updated information, which includes travel time forecasts and accident forecasts, the vehicle is allocated the appropriate section. The novelty of the SUA scheme lies in its updating of vehicles in every time to reduce traffic congestion. Furthermore, the SUA approach supports autonomy and management by self-regulation, which recommends its use in smart cities that support internet of things (IoT) technologies.


Author(s):  
Mohamed Fazil Mohamed Firdhous ◽  
B. H. Sudantha ◽  
Naseer Ali Hussien

Vehicular traffic has increased across all over the world especially in urban areas due to many reasons including the reduction in the cost of vehicles, degradation of the quality of public transport services and increased wealth of people. The traffic congestion created by these vehicles causes many problems. Increased environment pollution is one of the most serious negative effects of traffic congestion. Noxious gases and fine particles emitted by vehicles affect people in different ways depending on their age and present health conditions. Professionals and policy makers have devised schemes for better managing traffic in congested areas. These schemes suffer from many shortcomings including the inability to adapt to dynamic changes of traffic patterns. With the development of technology, new applications like Google maps help drivers to select less congested routes. But, the identification of the best route takes only the present traffic condition on different road segments presently. In this paper the authors propose a system that helps drivers select routes based on the present and expected environment pollution levels at critical points in a given area.


2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 880-885 ◽  
Author(s):  
Runmin Wang ◽  
Zhigang Xu ◽  
Xiangmo Zhao ◽  
Jinchao Hu

Transport ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 33 (4) ◽  
pp. 971-980 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Maciejewski ◽  
Joschka Bischoff

Fleets of shared Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) could replace private cars by providing a taxi-like service but at a cost similar to driving a private car. On the one hand, large Autonomous Taxi (AT) fleets may result in increased road capacity and lower demand for parking spaces. On the other hand, an increase in vehicle trips is very likely, as travelling becomes more convenient and affordable, and additionally, ATs need to drive unoccupied between requests. This study evaluates the impact of a city-wide introduction of ATs on traffic congestion. The analysis is based on a multi-agent transport simulation (MATSim) of Berlin (Germany) and the neighbouring Brandenburg area. The central focus is on precise simulation of both real-time AT operation and mixed autonomous/conventional vehicle traffic flow. Different ratios of replacing private car trips with AT trips are used to estimate the possible effects at different stages of introducing such services. The obtained results suggest that large fleets operating in cities may have a positive effect on traffic if road capacity increases according to current predictions. ATs will practically eliminate traffic congestion, even in the city centre, despite the increase in traffic volume. However, given no flow capacity improvement, such services cannot be introduced on a large scale, since the induced additional traffic volume will intensify today’s congestion.


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