Toward smart and sustainable road intersection design embedding connected, cooperative and automated vehicles

Abstract

In this paper the performance of Human Driven Vehicles (HDVs) mixed with Connected, Cooperative and Automated Vehicles (CCAVs) were analyzed at intersection level, considering different geometric design solutions associated with the corresponding traffic control modes. The intersection selected as case study is located in the City of Opole, Poland. Aimsun Next was used to simulate the infrastructural and traffic scenarios conceptualized by incorporating increasing market penetration rates of CCAVs. In the simulating environment CCAVs’ driving parameters were well-defined according to the geometric layouts built by comparing simulated data with benchmark capacity functions (BCFs). In the transition toward fully CCAVs fleet, the methodological approach based on microsimulation, enables to endorse and analyze the assumptions underlying the appraisal of CCAVs’ operational performance at the intersection level. The results provided a future insight of traffic scenarios that can occur at intersections under mixed traffic conditions of HDVs and CCAVs. The methodological comparison of different geometric layouts enables to evaluate feasibility of design strategies adequate with the CCAVs’ performance expectations also useful in urban road corridor level assessments.