Cooperative adaptive cruise control and intelligent traffic signal interaction: a field operational test with platooning on a suburban arterial in real traffic

It is becoming increasingly important to gain real-life insights into the effects of vehicle automation with the continued introduction of cooperative and automated vehicles (CAV). This study reports on the findings of a field operational test (FOT) of cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) vehicles on an arterial corridor with other traffic. The FOT demonstrated that that CACC vehicles can operate well under such conditions and can operate in platoons at lower time-headways than human driven vehicles. Platoon disengagement and cut-ins were analysed and showed that although many platoon break-ups are unavoidable, CACC operation was carried out without incident with frequent recoupling of platoons occurring. Most cut-ins occurred near to intersections, where vehicles are required to merge or need to change lanes to turn off the main corridor. It was not possible to derive potential traffic flow improvements from the FOT, due to a limited overall penetration rate and limitations of the intelligent traffic signals. The findings offer greater insights into the performance of CAV technology in a suburban environment and can aid road authorities to prepare infrastructure for the broader introduction of CAVs as well as the development of modelling tools to improve impact analysis of CAVs in urban environments.