The impact of driving homogeneity due to automation and cooperation of vehicles on uphill freeway sections

Abstract

Background: This work presents a microsimulation study on the topic on an uphill network, regarding the potential impact of AVs and Cooperative-AVs (Coop-AVs or CAVs), vehicles able to cooperate with the infrastructure. The novelty of the proposed approach is that the simulation of all vehicles is performed with a common hybrid car-following model that takes explicitly into account the variability in the vehicle dynamics and the driving behaviors. Methods: Simulation of longitudinal movement of the individual vehicles is performed with a common hybrid car-following model that takes explicitly into account the variability in the vehicle dynamics and the driving behaviors. Different homogeneity levels in the vehicles and drivers are tested, while the cooperation is explicitly assessed by proposing a realistic Vehicle to Infrastructure (V2I) logic. Possible reduction in the response times of the vehicles is also studied. Results: Results with more homogenous vehicle movements have more consistent performance in terms of traffic flow, that is independent of the order that the vehicles enter the network. Finally, the cooperation with the infrastructure can limit high variations in the vehicles’ accelerations and thus potential traffic jams. Conclusions: Homogenized flows can mitigate or even solve traffic-related problems related to the variability in driving behaviors, such as bottlenecks and stop-and-go waves.