Evaluation of traffic network performance under autonomous vehicles with intelligent signal control policies

Abstract

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) focus on increasing the efficiency of existing surface transportation systems via the use of advanced computers, electronics, and communication technologies. A new era is emerging in terms of vehicle technology. With intelligent vehicles, no driver is needed to control the vehicle in the future. The advancement of vehicle technology has been able to provide autonomous vehicles in road traffic environment. Possible impacts of autonomous vehicles on density, speed, and flow, and vehicular movements on links and intersections might be affected as well. This research aims at developing an integrated simulation framework to investigate possible impacts of the autonomous/connected vehicles and to identify key issues on the impacts of autonomous/connected vehicles on road traffic, in terms of traffic flow and signal control policies. Speed-density relationships are assumed based on the autonomous vehicle’s characteristics and three signal control policies are assumed to simulate network performance under different demand levels. Numerical experiments with different assumptions are conducted to evaluate system performance under autonomous vehicle environment.