Evaluation of Advanced Vehicle & Communication Technologies through Traffic Microsimulation

Evaluation of VISSIM revealed that internal modeling of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV) has several limitations. For external modeling, two VISSIM interfaces are useful. The Component Object Model (COM) Application Programming Interface (API) is the superior approach for fetching data and modeling connectivity, whereas the External Driver Model (EDM) is a better tool for lateral and longitudinal control. Utilizing both the COM API and EDM overcomes the disadvantages of both, creating a more robust platform for CAV modeling. Based on this, a comprehensive simulation extension was developed to represent CAVs in VISSIM. CAVs were modeled and an isolated signalized intersection was simulated. The trajectory data from VISSIM were leveraged to estimate energy, fuel consumption, and greenhouse gas emissions using the Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES) method. The results show that CAVs in the traffic stream result in net improvement in traffic operational measures (travel time and speed). CAV, the combination of the two technologies (i.e., autonomy and connectivity) yields better performance than each (CV and AV) on their own. However, emissions did not follow the same trend. While increasing AV penetration rates resulted in emissions reductions, increasing CV and CAV penetration rates resulted in higher emissions. A deeper analysis into the root cause for these trends showed that while the CV logic chosen for testing in the VISSIM simulation environment seeks to maximize the likelihood of vehicle arrival-on-green, the algorithm likely results in increased variations in second-by-second accelerations, leading to overall higher emissions. The results are based on a small and relatively simple network, and operations may be different for larger and more complex networks. In addition, the AV, CV, and CAV findings are limited to the connectivity and autonomy algorithms tested in this project. A more complex network with varying vehicle movement algorithms would allow for a more robust analysis.

• Record URL:
  https://www.eng.ufl.edu/stride/wp-content/uploads/sites/153/2021/09/STRIDE-Project-D-Final-Report-Manjunatha-updated.pdf
• Summary URL:
  https://stride.ce.ufl.edu/project-d/
• Summary URL:
  https://stride.ce.ufl.edu/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Project-D-Brief-Manjunatha-Elefteriadou-Final-Accessible-1.pdf
• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/57280
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This document was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program.
• Corporate Authors:

  University of Florida, Gainesville

  College of Design, Construction and Planning
  Gainesville, FL  United States  32611-5701

  Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta

  School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
  Atlanta, GA  United States  30332

  Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development and Education Center (STRIDE)

  University of Florida
  365 Weil Hall
  Gainesville, FL  United States  32611

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Manjunatha, Pruthvi
  • 0000-0001-6596-268X
  • Elefteriadou, Lily
  • 0000-0003-4045-3365
  • Hunter, Michael
  • 0000-0002-0307-9127
  • Duan, Xi
  • Letter, Clark
  • Roy, Somdut
  • White, Chelsea "Chip"
  • Postma, Deborah
  • Guin, Angshuman
• Publication Date: 2021-8-2

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 133p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Autonomous vehicles; Connected vehicles; Fuel consumption; Pollutants; Traffic simulation; Travel time
• Identifier Terms: VISSIM (Computer model)
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01779323
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: Project D
• Contract Numbers: 69A3551747104
• Files: UTC, NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Aug 24 2021 10:34AM