SAFETY-DERIVED SINGLE AUTOMATED LANE CAPACITY

At given speed and weather conditions, how close can we space automated vehicles safely? The answer depends not only on cruise speed but also on entry/exit or ingress/egress to an automated cruising stream. Our analysis provides a framework for determining how much space is available to add more vehicles. This analysis uses, in addition to speed, maximum braking distance, collision severity, maximum relative collision speed for elastic bumper behavior, deceleration system time delay, vehicle-to-vehicle link time delay, the number of collisions and relative velocity of those collisions for a given deceleration of the vehicle ahead, the vehicle masses, and the vehicle lengths as input parameters. The result is a relationship of capacity versus speed that would be basic to an automated lane design and its role in a regional traffic network.