Macroscopic Analysis of Traffic Flow of Automated Vehicles

In the first part of this study a macroscopic traffic flow model of automated vehicles is developed by using the microscopic control laws that govern the longitudinal motion of individual vehicles together with the dynamics of the interconnection with other vehicles. The developed model is used in this paper to analyze the steady state behavior of automated traffic flow for different operating conditions. The analysis indicates that some of the proposed modes of AHS which operate without a traffic flow controller may not be effective in avoiding traffic congestion problems resulting from traffic flow disturbances. The model also predicts the existence of shock waves in extreme cases for the same modes of AHS. The results of this analysis can be used as guidelines for designing macroscopic as well as microscopic control laws. Finally, some of these phenomena predicted by analysis of the model were validated with the help of simulations.