Automatic and efficient driving strategies while approaching a traffic light

TL;DR

This paper explores vehicle-infrastructure communication to optimize driving strategies at traffic lights, improving traffic flow, comfort, and fuel efficiency through simulation of various strategies and vehicle interactions.

Contribution

It introduces and evaluates new traffic light approaching strategies using vehicle-infrastructure communication, demonstrating their effectiveness through simulation at different speeds.

Findings

Approximately 15% reduction in stops at 50 km/h

About 4% improvement in other criteria at 50 km/h

Performance improvements double at 70 km/h

Abstract

Vehicle-infrastructure communication opens up new ways to improve traffic flow efficiency at signalized intersections. In this study, we assume that equipped vehicles can obtain information about switching times of relevant traffic lights in advance. This information is used to improve traffic flow by the strategies 'early braking', 'anticipative start', and 'flying start'. The strategies can be implemented in driver-information mode, or in automatic mode by an Adaptive Cruise Controller (ACC). Quality criteria include cycle-averaged capacity, driving comfort, fuel consumption, travel time, and the number of stops. By means of simulation, we investigate the isolated strategies and the complex interactions between the strategies and between equipped and non-equipped vehicles. As universal approach to assess equipment level effects we propose relative performance indexes and found, at a maximum speed of 50 km/h, improvements of about 15% for the number of stops and about 4% for the other criteria. All figures double when increasing the maximum speed to 70 km/h.