Growing car use is one of today's major problems of economic centres all around the world. The users of the road transportation system in these regions suffer from daily congestion and long travel times, resulting in individual inconvenience and substantial economic losses. It is therefore a great challenge to both policy makers and researchers to seek for solutions which contribute to a more efficient transportation system. This thesis investigates one of the possible solutions to enhance the traffic flow quality of the road transportation network in the future. The thesis focuses on the effects that driver support systems may have on capacity and safety of motorway bottlenecks, which largely determine the road network performance. With this analysis, a better understanding of the impacts of driver support systems on traffic flows can be obtained, enabling conclusions about the design of support systems. (A)
Abstract