NC Transportation Center of Excellence on Connected and Autonomous Vehicle Technology (NC-CAV)
Thrust 1: CAV Impacts
Lead: W. Fan (UNCC)
Other Investigators: ITRE: A. Hajbabaie, D. Findley, S. Bert, N. Norboge; NCAT: S. Jiang
As Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) emerge, we should expect changes to more than just the way we get to work and take care of our errands. CAVs are widely accepted to have substantial impacts on the transportation system, including the planning, design, operations, construction, and maintenance of the infrastructure, as well as on the flow of entities involved (including drivers, vehicles, bicyclists, and pedestrians). In particular, since CAVs will have profound impacts on freeways, arterials, and local streets, they will significantly affect those arteries’ capacities and the transportation system’s performance. CAVs are also expected to have significant impacts on the economic outlook of cities and will affect revenues associated with motor vehicles, such as motor fuel taxes, sales and use taxes, moving violations, toll receipts, and parking fees, among other transportation revenue sources.
This project evaluates the ways CAVs will influence the current transportation system’s performance, along with the provision of an in-depth analysis of the required intersection capacity adjustments while explicitly accounting for mixed vehicle fleets with different expected levels of CAV adoption under different traffic situations. This project focuses on the development and provides recommendations on estimating and predicting the capacity of intersections and the associated revenue in the presence of CAVs, in order to lead to a better understanding of how CAVs will impact mobility and safety of the urban transportation systems. Also, this project assesses the fiscal revenue impacts of the transition to CAVs on North Carolina’s cities, towns, and households, and how this will affect revenues at NCDOT. It also identifies policy options to mitigate budget impacts and allow North Carolina to reap the maximum benefits from the transition.
Thrust 1 researchers investigate the impacts of CAV technologies on the current transportation system’s performance, in particular on intersection capacity adjustments considering different levels of CAV adoption under different traffic situations. This project also assess the fiscal revenue impacts of the transition to CAVs on North Carolina’s cities, towns, and households. It also identifies the policy options to mitigate budget impacts and enable the state to reap the full benefits of the transition to advanced transportation systems. This Thrust particularly focuses on the impacts of CAVs on the urban transportation system and will inform our evaluation of how CAV market penetration will affect intersection capacities.
Thrust 1 Goals and Objectives
The main goals of this research project include an investigation of the impacts of CAV technologies on the current transportation system (specifically on the intersection capacity at different expected market penetration levels of the CAVs) and the assessment of the fiscal revenue impacts of CAVs on North Carolina’s cities, towns, and households. The objectives of this project are to:
1. Conduct a comprehensive review of the state-of-the-art and state-of-the-practice on CAV technologies and their impacts on intersection capacity and the associated transportation revenues;
2. Develop case studies to illustrate the impacts of CAVs on the traffic systems, particularly at the intersections, suitable intersections will be identified for the case study;
3. Create simulation methods to measure intersection capacity at different CAV possible market penetration levels;
4. Analyze the impacts of the CAV technologies on intersection capacity and provide recommendations for future research directions;
5. Conduct a comprehensive analysis of the revenue impacts and opportunities of automated, connected, electric, and shared vehicles accruing at various adoption rates and policy scenarios in North Carolina, and
6. Integrate and refine findings from this research, including an in-depth review of CAV technologies and their impacts on future transportation revenues and on the planning initiatives such as NC Moves 2050 and the NC FIRST Commission.
Anticipated Research Products of Thrust 1
The anticipated research products include:
1. A review of CAV technologies and intersection capacity analysis considering mixed vehicle fleets with different expected levels of CAV market penetration.
2. Identification of potential intersection scenarios and collection of the characteristics of each transportation revenue impact scenario, including an assessment and feasibility of new, innovative, and sustainable transportation funding methods.
3. Guidelines on intersection capacity adjustments at different expected CAV market penetration levels.
4. An evaluation of the fiscal impacts of CAV adoption, including policy options to enable North Carolina to reap maximum benefits of CAV adoption.
CAV Impacts on Traffic Intersection Capacity , Literature Review
Prepared by: Li Song (UNCC) and Wei Fan (UNCC)
Report No: TCE2020-03-001
Abstract: This report provides a comprehensive review of the current state-of-the-art and state-of-the-practice on connected and autonomous vehicle’s technology and its impacts on traffic intersection capacity. This should give a clear picture of connected and automated vehicle (CAV) technology, deployment and market penetration rate prediction of CAVs, traffic flow controls of CAVs, control strategies for CAVs at intersections, intersection capacity analysis methods, and intersection modeling scenarios and parameters used in the existing evaluation studies on the impacts of CAVs at intersections.
Prepared by: Morgan Crowder (NCA&T), Steven Jiang (NCA&T), James Poslusny (NCSU), Nicolas Norboge (NCSU), Steve Bert (NCSU), Daniel Findley (NCSU)
Report No: TCE2020-03-002
Abstract: CAVs will provide numerous benefits when adopted, including reduced travel time, increased safety, and increased fuel efficiency. As CAVs continue to develop it will become important to act proactively to reduce the uncertainty around the adoption of these new systems. This report will review the impacts of adopting CAVs on transportation revenue collection.