Investigating the Effects of Automated Vehicle Driving Operations on Road Emissions and Traffic Performance

Abstract

Automated vehicles (AV) will inevitably have an impact on the movement of people and goods. Assessing the effects of AVs on land use, congestion and the environment have become of great interest to researchers. This study explores the effects of AVs and vehicle electrification on greenhouse gas emissions using traffic microsimulation and emissions modeling. The driving behaviour parameters of a traffic simulation package, most relevant to AVs, are tested within the ranges deemed to be representative of potential AV operations. The effects of AVs are evaluated under both uninterrupted and interrupted traffic flow operating environments, as well as under high and low traffic demand. The main findings indicate that automated vehicles can bring positive changes in terms of emission and traffic flow performance. The significance of the impacts is more evident when AVs are tuned to more aggressive driving settings and especially under high traffic conditions in uninterrupted flow operations.