Abstract
In the context of global suburbanization and population aging, a low-speed, automated vehicle (LSAV) system provides essential mobility services in suburban residential areas. Although extensive studies on shared autonomous vehicle (SAV) services have been conducted, quantitative investigations on the operation of suburban LSAV systems are limited. Based on a demonstration pilot project of an autonomous vehicle called “Slocal Automated Driving”, we investigated the performance of an SAV system considering several scenarios in Kozoji Newtown, a suburban commuter town in Japan. The agent-based simulation results revealed that 40 LSAVs can satisfy the demands of 2263 daily trips with an average wait time of 15 min. However, in the case of a high-speed scenario, the same fleet size improved the level of service (LOS) by reducing the average wait time to two and a half minutes and halving the in-vehicle time. By contrast, the wait time in terms of the average and 95th percentile of the no-sharing ride scenario drastically deteriorated to an unacceptable level. Based on the fluctuations of hourly share rates, wait times, and the number of vacant vehicles, we determined that preparing for the potential fleet insufficiency periods from 7:00–13:00 and 15:00–18:00 can improve the LOS.
Highlights
Over the past five decades, vehicle registrations have increased over ten times worldwide [2]
Two output data were available after the simulation, namely the passenger logs and vehicle logs
The passenger logs were processed indispensably to analyze the level of service (LOS)
Summary
The two trends of development that cause traffic demand include motorization and suburbanization. Motorization results in economic development, which in turn improves the income and general wellbeing of the population [1]. Suburbanization is the stage of urban development wherein the peripheral areas of the city are developed into residential spaces while the urban center undergoes depopulation [3]. It appears in developed countries, such as the Czech Republic and [4] Poland [3], along with developing countries [3,5,6]. The development of motorization and suburbanization generates traffic around urban areas
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