A progressive deployment strategy for cooperative adaptive cruise control to improve traffic dynamics

Cooperative adaptive cruise control (CACC) vehicles are intelligent vehicles that use vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) to share traffic information in real time. Previous studies have shown that CACC could have an impact on increasing highway capacities at high market penetration. Since reaching a high CACC market penetration level is not occurring in the near future, this study presents a progressive deployment approach that demonstrates to have a great potential of reducing traffic congestions at low CACC penetration levels. Using a previously developed microscopic traffic simulation model of a freeway with an on-ramp — created to induce perturbations and trigger stop-and-go traffic, the CACC system’s effect on the traffic performance is studied. The results show significance and indicate the potential of CACC systems to improve traffic characteristics which can be used to reduce traffic congestion. The study shows that the impact of CACC is positive and not only limited to a high market penetration. By giving CACC vehicles priority access to high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, the highway capacity could be significantly improved with a CACC penetration as low as 20%.