Platooning of Autonomous Public Transport Vehicles: The Influence of Ride Comfort on Travel Delay

Teron Nguyen, Meng Xie, Xiaodong Liu, Nimal Arunachalam, Andreas Rau, Bernhard Lechner, Fritz Busch and Y. D. Wong
Additional contact information
Teron Nguyen: Institute of Road, Railway and Airfield Construction, Technical University of Munich, Baumbachstr. 7, 81245 Munich, Germany
Meng Xie: Rapid Road Transport, TUMCREATE Ltd., 1 Create Way, #10-02 CREATE Tower, Singapore 138602, Singapore
Xiaodong Liu: Rapid Road Transport, TUMCREATE Ltd., 1 Create Way, #10-02 CREATE Tower, Singapore 138602, Singapore
Nimal Arunachalam: Rapid Road Transport, TUMCREATE Ltd., 1 Create Way, #10-02 CREATE Tower, Singapore 138602, Singapore
Andreas Rau: Rapid Road Transport, TUMCREATE Ltd., 1 Create Way, #10-02 CREATE Tower, Singapore 138602, Singapore
Bernhard Lechner: Institute of Road, Railway and Airfield Construction, Technical University of Munich, Baumbachstr. 7, 81245 Munich, Germany
Fritz Busch: Chair of Traffic Engineering and Control, Technical University of Munich, Arcisstr. 21, 80333 Munich, Germany
Y. D. Wong: Centre for Infrastructure Systems, Nanyang Technological University, N1-01b-51, 50 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798, Singapore

Sustainability, 2019, vol. 11, issue 19, 1-14

Abstract: The development of advanced technologies has led to the emergence of autonomous vehicles. Herein, autonomous public transport (APT) systems equipped with prioritization measures are being designed to operate at ever faster speeds compared to conventional buses. Innovative APT systems are configured to accommodate prevailing passenger demand for peak as well as non-peak periods, by electronic coupling and decoupling of platooned units along travel corridors, such as the dynamic autonomous road transit (DART) system being researched in Singapore. However, there is always the trade-off between high vehicle speed versus passenger ride comfort, especially lateral ride comfort. This study analyses a new APT system within the urban context and evaluates its performance using microscopic traffic simulation. The platooning protocol of autonomous vehicles was first developed for simulating the coupling/decoupling process. Platooning performance was then simulated on VISSIM platform for various scenarios to compare the performance of DART platooning under several ride comfort levels: three bus comfort and two railway criteria. The study revealed that it is feasible to operate the DART system following the bus standing comfort criterion ( a y = 1.5 m/s 2 ) without any significant impact on system travel time. For the DART system operating to maintain a ride comfort of the high-speed train (HST) and light rail transit (LRT), the delay can constitute up to ? 10% and ? 5% of travel time, respectively. This investigation is crucial for the system delay management towards precisely designed service frequency and improved passenger ride comfort.

Keywords: autonomous public transport; passenger ride comfort; travel time; horizontal alignment; microscopic traffic simulation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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