Evaluating the Effectiveness of a Connected Vehicle Environment Using the Trajectory Data

Abstract

The transportation system is a complex interaction between the infrastructure, vehicles, and users. Over time, many innovations have come through in the field of transportation. The connected vehicle technology is one such innovation with potential to improve mobility, reduce congestion, and enhance safety of the transportation system. However, the successful deployment of connected vehicle technology depends on improved system-level performance and user experiences. In order to understand and assess the real-world behavior of this technology, the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT) has built several testbeds across the United States. The focus of this research is to evaluate the effectiveness of a connected vehicle environment using the trajectory data of test vehicles collected from the Arizona testbed, United States, an arterial corridor with a series of signalized intersections. Vehicle to infrastructure communication using the dedicated short range communication (DSRC) technology was tested along this corridor. The test vehicle trajectories were captured after processing data points obtained from a Global Positioning System (GPS) device. The trends in built trajectories in the connected vehicle environment and base condition were compared by time of the day. The results show a statistically significant increase in the average speed of the test vehicles along the arterial corridor in the connected environment compared to the base condition.