Human drivers behavioural adaptation when driving next to a platoon of automated vehicles on a dedicated lane and implications on ttraffic flow: a driving simulator and microscopic simulation study in the Netherlands

Automated Vehicles (AVs) are expected to improve traffic flow efficiency, safety, and have positive impact on the environment. Deployment of AVs on highways is expected to be the first step towards their implementation. One of the main concerns is how will human drivers interact with automated vehicles. Dedicated lanes have been suggested as a possible solution. However, evidence-based research on the implications of dedicated lanes on human drivers’ behavioral adaptation, and as a result on traffic flow efficiency and safety is still missing. To fill this research gap, a driving simulator experiment has been conducted to observe behavioral adaptation of manual vehicles (MVs) drivers exposed to different road design configurations of a dedicated lane. In total 34 drivers participated in which each drove the 4 dedicated lanes design configurations. Following that the results from the driving simulator study were used to adapt the parameters in the microscopic traffic simulation, VISSIM to investigate the influence on traffic flow efficiency. The results indicate that drivers decrease their time headway when they are driving directly next to a platoon of AVs, while this was not observed when a guardrail is designed to separate them. With regard to a dedicated lane with a continuous access, the traffic flow is improved when the penetration rate of AVs has reached 15- to 20%. For dedicated lanes with a limited access and thus specified entry- and exit ramps, the traffic flow is only improved once the penetration rate is more than 30- to 35%.