No abstract

The flow of traffic composed of vehicles that are equipped with adaptive cruise control (ACC) is studied using simulations. The ACC vehicles are modeled by a linear dynamical equation that has string stability. In platoons of all ACC vehicles, perturbations due to changes in the lead vehicle's velocity do not cause jams. Simulations of merging flows near an onramp show that if the total incoming rate does not exceed the capacity of the single outgoing lane, free flow is maintained. With larger incoming flows, a state closely related to the synchronized flow phase found in manually driven vehicular traffic has been observed. This state, however, should not be considered congested because the flow is maximal for the density. Traffic composed of random sequences of ACC vehicles and manual vehicles has also been studied. At high speeds (approximately 30 m/s ) jamming occurs for concentrations of ACC vehicles of 10% or less. At 20% no jams are formed. The formation of jams is sensitive to the sequence of vehicles (ACC or manual). At lower speeds (approximately 15 m/s ), no critical concentration for complete jam suppression is found. Rather, the average velocity in the pseudojam region increases with increasing ACC concentration. Mixing 50% ACC vehicles randomly with manually driven vehicles on the primary lane in onramp simulations shows only modestly reduced travel times and larger flow rates.

Mixed traffic flow consisting of vehicles equipped with adaptive cruise control (ACC) and manually driven vehicles is analyzed using car-following simulations. Unlike simulations that show suppression of jams due to increased string stability, simulations of merging from an on-ramp onto a freeway have not thus far demonstrated a substantial positive impact of ACC. In this paper cooperative merging is proposed to increase throughput and increase distance traveled in a fixed time (reduce travel times). In such a system an ACC vehicle senses not only the preceding vehicle in the same lane but also the vehicle immediately in front in the opposite lane. Prior to reaching the merge region, the ACC vehicle adjusts its velocity to ensure that a safe gap for merging is obtained. If on-ramp demand is moderate, partial implementation of cooperative merging where only main line ACC vehicles react to an on-ramp vehicle is effective. Significant improvement in throughput (18%) and increases up to 3 km in distance traveled in 500 s are found for 50% ACC mixed flow relative to the flow of all manual vehicles. For large demand, full implementation is required to reduce congestion.

The optimal velocity model, as modified by the author, is used in simulations of traffic on a dual-lane highway and a single-lane highway with an on-ramp. The equilibrium solutions of the modified model cover a two-dimensional region of flow-density space beneath the fundamental-diagram curve, rather than just lying on the curve as in the original model. Thus it satisfies a requirement of the three-phase model of Kerner [Phys. Rev. Lett. 81, 3797 (2002)]. Synchronization of velocity across dual lanes due to frequent lane changes is observed in free flow. True synchronized flow, as determined by the region of density-flow space it occupies, is obtained in on-ramp simulations with typical driver reaction times. A gradual change to the formation of a jam is observed for increasing delay times.

No abstract