Do Benefits justify Cooperative Systems? A Cost-Benefit-Analysis

Abstract

Cooperative systems comprising the V2I and V2V communication, ADAS, and traffic management applications are well-researched, technically sound and nearly ready to be installed in the real world. Their general benefits regarding traffic flow and emission improvements could be proved in simulations and FOTs. What remains underinvestigated is the question whether the costs of installation and operation are outweighed by these benefits from the economical point of view. Therefore Cost-Benefit-Analyses have been conducted in the European research project eCoMove which aimed at reducing fuel consumption and therefore CO2 emission by 20%, as well as in the German research project KOLINE. This paper concentrates on the transformation of the simulation results into monetised benefits, the cost derivation and the resulting Cost-Benefit-Ratios (CBR) of the different scenarios. The most important scenario parameters hereby were the penetration rate of vehicles and traffic light control optimisation. It is shown that very good CBR values can be obtained, when the intersection layout and driver behaviour are regarded carefully.