AN INVESTIGATION OF HIGHWAY AUTOMATION

A summary of research, conducted from March 1969 to September 1974, on two essential facets--individual vehicle control and network control--of an automated highway system is presented. The former involved analytical-to- full-scale studies of both vehicle lateral control and various elements of longitudinal control including steady- state operation, merging, maneuvering, and emergency operations. The latter involved computer simulation studies of a variety of networks, which embodied commonly used highway geometric configurations, and an evaluation of network performance for different demand conditions. This report, which is an updated version of a similar summary (EES 276-14) published in June 1973, has three appendices containing detailed results from the studies undertaken.