The impact of automation and connectivity on traffic flow and CO2 emissions. A detailed microsimulation study

Abstract

The interest on the impact of vehicle automation and connectivity in the future road transport networks is very high, both from a research and a policy perspective. Results in the literature show that many of the anticipated advantages of connected and automated vehicles or automated vehicles without connectivity (CAVs and AVs respectively) on congestion and energy consumption are questionable. Some studies provide quantitative answers to the above questions through microsimulation but they systematically ignore the realistic simulation of vehicle dynamics, driver behaviour or instantaneous emissions estimates, mostly due to the overall increased complexity of the transport systems and the need for low computational demand on large-scale simulations. However, recent studies question the capability of common car-following models to produce realistic vehicle dynamics or driving behaviour, which directly impacts emissions estimations as well. This work presents a microsimulation study that contributes on the topic, using a scenario-based approach to give insights regarding the impact of CAVs and AVs on the evolution of emissions over a highway network. The motivation here is to answer whether the different driving behaviours produce significant differences in emissions during rush hours, and how significant is the impact of detailed vehicle dynamics simulation and instantaneous emissions in the outcome. The status of the network is assessed in terms of flow and speed. Furthermore, emissions are estimated using both the average-speed EMEP/EEA fuel consumption factors and a generic version of the European Commission's CO2MPAS model that provides instantaneous fuel consumption estimates. The simulation results of this work show that AVs can deteriorate the status of the network, and that connectivity is the key for improved traffic flow. Emissions-wise, the AVs have the highest fuel consumption per km travelled among other types, while CAVs only marginally lower the overall consumption of human-driven vehicles. For the same traffic demand, the total emissions for different vehicle types remain at comparable levels.