Can autonomous parking of vehicles reduce travel time and land use?: A simulation study of automated road transport

Abstract

Within the framework of the EU project ART-Forum, various European partners have jointly addressed the question of how autonomous vehicles could contribute to a mobility revolution. A major transport challenge, particularly in urban areas, is the high space consumption of transport infrastructure, especially of parked vehicles. Therefore, a simulation study was carried out in the project with the aim of investigating the potential of central neighborhood garages in connection with automated vehicles. The question was whether autonomous parking of vehicles can reduce travel time, emissions and roadside land use. In the scenario described, it is assumed that the number of private cars remains constant. In many residential areas, car drivers have to search for a long time to find a free parking slot. This not only costs time and nerves, but also emissions arise during the search. Several simulation scenarios with up to five neighborhood garages distributed across the investigation area were carried out by using the simulation tool SUMO (Simulation of Urban Mobility). The study was based on self-driving vehicles in a residential area. The idea is that people are dropped off at their destination, for example at their house's front door, and the vehicle then drives itself unmanned to a central parking garage. Parking on the roadside no longer exists. The results from the simulation show that a single garage in the study area has no significant impact on emissions, whereas if several garages are distributed in the study area, fewer emissions are emitted on the way through the examination area. In any cases travel times of passengers are reduced. A particular advantage of the garages is that vehicles no longer park at the roadside, so this space can be used for other purposes, as a living area, for children's play or as green areas. In the submitted paper, the simulation study will be presented and the results interpreted. In this way, the paper contributes to the debate on the potential of autonomous vehicles as a lever for a mobility revolution.