Breaking the Highway Capacity Barrier: Adaptive Cruise Control-Based Concept

Abstract

A single-lane advanced vehicle-highway concept that can increase driving comfort and highway capacity is proposed. The concept can be implemented in the near future as it uses the adaptive cruise control (ACC) technology on vehicles and the intelligent ramp metering technologies on the roadway. A simulation-based performance evaluation of single-lane ACC systems under different traffic conditions is presented. The results indicate that drivers can fully use ACC systems even in stop-and-go-traffic, thereby reducing driving stress. It is also shown that ACC-equipped vehicles can maintain a desired intervehicle gap of 1 s under different traffic conditions while attenuating traffic disturbances, thereby resulting in a traffic flow of up to 3,000 vehicles per hour per lane with properly designed intelligent ramp metering at entrances to such a highway.