This paper reports the investigation of the integrated impacts of Autonomous Cruise Control (ACC) on motorway traffic flow by simulation study using FLOWSIM, a fuzzy logic based microscopic simulation model for motorway traffic. The study was based on three lane UK motorways. The main variables considered include traffic demand, ACC penetration, adopted target headway (ATH) and maximum deceleration rate (MDR) with a fixed percentage of heavy good vehicles (HGV) of 15%. Average vehicle journey time and standard deviation of speed (Sd Speed) were the main indicators to judge the efficiency and stability of the motorway traffic flow. It was found that the impacts of ACC penetration on traffic flow varies with traffic demand. The penetration of ACC will improve the stability of traffic flow without sacrificing the average vehicle journey time when traffic demand is not over 4500 vehicles per hour. However, in very high traffic demand case, e.g. 5500 (veh/h), the penetration of ACC will not benefit the traffic flow on journey time and flow stability. Detailed results and discussions on the impacts of ATH and MDR on motorway traffic flow are also included. For the covering abstract see IRRD E102946.
Abstract