Impede Autonomous Vehicles Merging at On-Ramps?

Abstract

This paper gives an overview over the phenomena on freeways to be expected when connected and autonomous vehicles (CAV) will be introduced into the traffic system. It discusses the physics of the phenomenon, together with the modelling and simulation approaches that have been described so far. This is followed by an analysis of single vehicle data from a freeway in Lyon to illustrate current speed and headway distributions which are most likely to change with the introduction of CAV’s. Finally, some microscopic simulation results are presented which show that traffic flow typically gains from the introduction of CAV’s, but may also display negative consequences under certain circumstances. More specifically, the traffic characteristics at the merging area in presence of CAV as been studied. It remains for future work to map out precisely where the introduction of CAV’s improves things, and where amendments have to be made to prevent negative side-effects.