Connected vehicles improve traffic flow at intersections

According to the study, safety features onboard automated vehicles slow down the movement of traffic

“There are two significant reasons that people are interested in automated vehicles – improving passenger safety and reducing travel time,” said Ali Hajbabaie, first author of a paper on the work and an associate professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at NC State.

“There is a lot of research showing that automated vehicles can improve safety. But our research here – which relies on computational modeling – suggests that if we want to also improve travel time, an increase in automated vehicles isn’t enough; we need vehicles that are capable of communicating with each other and with the traffic-control systems that manage traffic flow at intersections.”

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For the study, the researchers used a computational model that simulates traffic conditions. The researchers accounted for four types of vehicles: human-driven vehicles (HVs); connected vehicles (CVs) – which are driven by humans, but share information with other connected vehicles and with the control system that manages traffic lights; automated vehicles (AVs); and connected automated vehicles (CAVs).