Evaluating Traffic Efficiency and Safety by Varying Truck Platoon Characteristics in a Critical Traffic Situation

Abstract

Truck platooning is the application of cooperative adaptive cruise control where multiple trucks are electronically linked using vehicle-to-vehicle communication. Although truck platoons might bring fuel savings and emission reductions, their interactions with surrounding traffic and resulting impact on traffic operations and safety are not fully understood. The objective of this paper is to evaluate traffic efficiency and safety in a critical traffic situation when truck platoons are introduced in the system. This paper presents a case study of a merging section, located on A15 motorway, near the port of Rotterdam in the Netherlands. We consider two scenarios: platoons on a mainline carriageway and platoons merging onto a mainline carriageway. We simulate the movements of truck platoons in a microscopic traffic simulator. Longitudinal and lateral controllers for truck platoons, proposed in this paper, can ensure their collision-free, string-stable, and smooth driving behavior. Simulation experiments are conducted by varying platoon characteristics such as market penetration, length, intra-platoon headway, platoon speed, and their ability to create a gap for changing lanes. The results suggest that truck platoons on the mainline carriageway may be detrimental to traffic efficiency and safety in high traffic intensity, whereas truck platoons originating from an on-ramp produce limited impacts. Further, we conduct both local and global sensitivity analyses to analyze the impact of platoon characteristics on traffic efficiency and safety. The findings emphasize that uncertainty in traffic efficiency and safety strongly depends on the interactions among platoon characteristics, traffic demand, and traffic scenarios.

Traffic Safety Sensitivity Analysis of Parameters Used for Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Calibration

“…Nevertheless, decreasing the number of vehicles in the platoon slightly enhanced the traffic safety and decreased the number of traffic conflicts. This result was previously reported by both [27,28], who explained that a higher number of vehicles in a platoon reflects more braking actions which may result in a higher number of conflicts.…”

“…Finally, because a greater number of vehicles in a platoon reflects more braking actions [27,28], the maximum number of vehicles in a platoon (platoon size) is important for traffic safety. The default maximum platoon size for Aimsun is ten vehicles.…”

“…The default maximum platoon size for Aimsun is ten vehicles. However, Aramrattana et al [28] considered two, three, four, and five vehicles in their studies, whereas Faber et al [27] considered five, seven, and ten vehicles. This study tests the following platoon sizes: four, six, eight, and ten vehicles.…”

Unraveling Gap Selection Process During Discretionary Lane Changing by Vehicle Class

“…Aggressiveness in the car-following behavior is assessed through a time-to-collision-based (TTC) indicator. The aggressiveness is assumed to be present if the TTC value is less than 4 s, which is also used in previous research [24,25]. 8.…”

Connected and Autonomous Vehicles and Infrastructures: A Literature Review

“…Fiber et al found the truck platooning using CACC, moving on the mainline at merging section, has detrimental effects on traffic safety. The regulations for rolling out of CAVs and liability related to road safety have not been addressed properly worldwide [ 39 ].…”