Impact of Urban Arterial Traffic LOS on the Vehicle Density of Different Lanes of the Arterial in Proximity of an Unsignalized Intersection for Autonomous Vehicle vs. Conventional Vehicle Environments

Traffic congestion is known as one of the serious global problems the transportation systems face due to the rapid urbanization in large cities. Traffic congestion imposes a major cost on the users and economy and causes significant reductions in traffic flow. The congestion problem is even more serious on urban arterials especially near driveways and unsignalized intersections’ locations where vehicle movements are subject to drivers’ judgment. Application of active traffic management (ATM) strategies is the common way to overcome the operational and safety challenges associated with congested urban arterials. Yet, the rapid increase in people movements to urban areas is becoming beyond the management capabilities of traditional ATM strategies. The emerging autonomous vehicle (AV) technology offers ample opportunities to overcome the ever-growing congestion problem, hence supplement and/or replace traditional ATM strategies. This study investigates the benefits of AVs for congestion management at driveway locations on urban arterials. The impact of AVs on the traffic density of each lane of an urban arterial in close proximity of a driveway is assessed in this study. Level of service (LOS) measure is used as a boundary to evaluate the impact of AVs under different traffic congestion levels. Eight separate traffic simulation models are developed for two scenarios (conventional vehicle and AV environments). The results indicated that AVs have a superior capability in relieving traffic congestion significantly in the vicinity of a driveway in moderate LOS. This performance is achieved by the AVs capability to distribute vehicles evenly across lanes which helps redistribute gaps along the arterial section, hence allows vehicles from the driveway to merge more smoothly to the arterial. These findings indicate that transforming into an AV network can provide optimal access point management and allow better accessibility to adjacent land-uses and facilities.

• Record URL:
  • https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784482575.029
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9780784482582
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
• Corporate Authors:

  American Society of Civil Engineers

  1801 Alexander Bell Drive
  Reston, VA  United States  20191-4400
• Authors:
  • Mousavi, Seyedeh Maryam
  • Osman, Osama A
  • Lord, Dominique
• Conference:
  • International Conference on Transportation and Development 2019
  • Location: Alexandria Virginia, United States
  • Date: 2019-6-9 to 2019-6-12
• Publication Date: 2019-8

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Pagination: pp 303-314
• Monograph Title: International Conference on Transportation and Development 2019: Innovation and Sustainability in Smart Mobility and Smart Cities

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Arterial highways; Autonomous vehicles; Level of service; Traffic density; Traffic lanes; Unsignalized intersections
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01731339
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9780784482582
• Files: TRIS, ASCE
• Created Date: Feb 20 2020 9:30AM