Herd immunity for traffic safety in mixed automated traffic: what if cars could not crash!?

Traffic safety is arguably the most important traffic metric from a human perspective. Still, many millions of people are killed on roads every year. In this paper, the concept of Herd Immunity for Traffic Safety (HITS) is presented for the first time. This concept focuses on identifying and describing the increased level of safety that is...

Comparative Safety Assessment of Automated Driving Strategies at Highway Merges in Mixed Traffic

We present a simulation-based approach to assess the safety impacts of vehicles equipped with Automated Driving Systems (ADS) in mixed traffic with Human-driven Vehicles (HV). Specifically, we compare two generic longitudinal strategies of ADS to handle a cut-in: Reactive ADS acting only when the cut-in vehicle crosses the target lane boundary,...

Design and operation of dedicated lanes for connected and automated vehicles on motorways: A conceptual framework and research agenda

Dedicated Lanes (DLs) have been proposed as a potential scenario for the deployment of Automated and/or Connected Vehicles (C/AVs) on the road network. However, evidence-based knowledge regarding the impacts of different design configurations, utilization policies, and the design of their access/egress on traffic safety and efficiency is...