Energy and Mobility Impacts of a Feedback Variable Speed Advisory Algorithm on Traffic Streams of Connected Vehicles and Conventional Vehicles

Variable speed advisory (VSA) has the potential to mitigate stop-and-go waves and traffic oscillations that could decrease capacity. This research aimed to identify the impact of vehicle connectivity and users’ acceptance on the performance of a feedback variable speed advisory system. It adopted a simulation approach to conduct scenario analyses to estimate the performance of the VSA algorithm under various connected manually driven vehicle (CMDV) market penetrations. The analysis results indicate that the VSA control could have substantial effects on the freeway corridor when the CMDV market penetration was 10 to 40 percent. With the advisory speed, vehicle fuel efficiency increased 2–6 percent. These results suggest that the speed adaptation of a few connected drivers could change the traffic flow pattern, leading to more energy-efficient traffic flow. The performance of the VSA algorithm was not sensitive to small changes in the driver compliance level. However, the traffic performance changed significantly when the CMDV drivers fully comply with the VSA. The full compliance brought about 2 to 3 percent extra benefit on vehicle fuel efficiency. If the VSA algorithm could generate advisory speed based on the predicted traffic conditions rather than the current conditions, the effects of CMDV should become further increased. The research findings are essential for understanding the mechanism of traffic pattern change due to the implementation of VSA in a partially connected traffic stream. Those findings are important for refining the existing VSA algorithms and improving the connected vehicles (CV) systems to support the VSA application.

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: 22p

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01763984
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: TRBAM-21-00455
  • Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
  • Created Date: Feb 4 2021 10:57AM