Traffic Flow Characteristics with Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control: A Microscopic Simulation Study

Traffic flow effects of cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) have not been well understood, though such understanding is essential for a majority of forthcoming research and applications concerning connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV) as well as the CAV implication for future traffic management and control. This paper aims to explore the impacts of CACC on traffic flow efficiency based on in-depth microscopic simulation studies using an enhanced version of AIMSUN. First, the Gipps car-following and Gipps lane-changing models used by default in AIMSUN were replaced or enhanced by us with some more advanced car following and lane changing models to strengthen the capability of the simulation system in realistically reproducing capacity drop phenomena and capturing traffic merging processes. Second, a simulation platform was established using this enhanced AIMSUN with respect to a 10-km Dutch freeway stretch that includes multiple bottlenecks involving recurrent congestion. Third, the authors explored on this simulation platform the impacts of CACC on traffic flow mixed with manually driven vehicles and CACC equipped vehicles, in consideration of a variety of CACC market penetration rates. The study results suggest that the impacts of CACC are quite positive.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AHB45 Standing Committee on Traffic Flow Theory and Characteristics. Alternate title: Traffic Flow Characteristics with Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control: An Intensive Study Using Enhanced AIMSUN
• Authors:
  • Wang, Long
  • Guo, Jingqiu
  • Ye, Fangmin
  • Perraki, Georgia
  • Liu, Yongyang
  • Papamichail, Ioannis
  • Wang, Yibing
  • Papageorgiou, Markos
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 23p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Autonomous intelligent cruise control; Connected vehicles; Highway traffic control; Intelligent vehicles; Traffic congestion; Traffic flow; Traffic simulation
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01660342
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-02191
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 20 2018 9:27AM