Tracking a Shared Low-Speed Light-Weight Autonomous Mobility (SLLAM) System on Continuous Pedestrian Access Routes: A case study in Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are expected to better the transportation system, but the safety of AVs remains a concern, especially during the transition period when AVs and human driver vehicles will compete for the space on road. This study proposes a Shared Low-Speed Light-Weight Autonomous Mobility (SLLAM) system that makes use of the connected and underutilized space in pedestrian access routes (PARs) in small cities. The SLLAM system is envisioned to be part of micro-mobility, operating a fleet of self-driving single-occupancy vehicles (SOVs) with a width less than 5 ft. This study provides an agent-based activity simulation to track a fleet of vehicles in a SLLAM system serving citizens in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. The simulation captures individual trips. A total of 18 scenarios are designed to examine the impacts of travel demand size, vehicle operating speed and traveler tolerable waiting time on the performance of the system. The performance metrics include required fleet size, average person waiting time, empty vehicle miles traveled (empty VMT), and person-trips per vehicle. The simulation results show the required fleet size is largely determined by travel demand size; and a higher operating speed is associated with a smaller required fleet size. The tolerable waiting time has a small influence on the fleet size but can significantly impact the waiting times for SLLAM users. The results suggest a lower tolerable waiting time (e.g., 5 minutes) and relatively higher speed (e.g., 15 mph) to operate SLLAM system in the study area. More implications are discussed in the paper.

• Record URL:
  https://annualmeeting.mytrb.org/OnlineProgram/Details/15870
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ACP80 Standing Committee on Traffic Simulation Committee.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Zhang, Zihe
  • Liu, Jun
  • Nie, Qifan
  • Jones, Steven
  • Kockelman, Kara
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 100th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2021-1-5 to 2021-1-29
• Date: 2021

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Photos; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 17p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Autonomous vehicles; Case studies; Operating speed; Pedestrian areas; Shared mobility; Simulation; Single occupant vehicles; Travel demand; Waiting time
• Geographic Terms: Tuscaloosa (Alabama)
• Subject Areas: Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Planning and Forecasting; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01763962
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: TRBAM-21-03649
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 4 2021 10:57AM