Research on Geometric Design Standards for Freeways under a Fully Autonomous Driving Environment

Abstract

The formulation of the current geometric design standard for freeways considers the influence of the “human-vehicles-road-environment” system. In the fully autonomous environment, the driver has been liberated from the system, which means that the influence of “human” will be reduced. The requirements or limitations of the freeway geometric design standard, which consider the driver’s psychological and physical factors in the traditional driving environment, can be more flexible in the fully automatic driving environment. By using the methods of comparative analysis, theoretical analysis, and theoretical calculation, this article researches the geometric design standard for freeways in an autonomous driving environment from four aspects: control elements of geometric design, horizontal alignment, vertical alignment, and cross-section elements. The main contribution of this article is to propose the recommended values of the geometric design standard for freeways in a fully autonomous driving environment, which can provide reference for the formulation of relevant standards or specifications for autonomous driving roads in the future.