Abstract

dvanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) offer the possibility of helping drivers to fulfill their driving tasks. Automated vehicles are capable of communicating with surrounding vehicles (V2V) and infrastructure (V2I) in order to collect and provide essential information about driving environment. Studies have proved that automated vehicles have a potential to decrease traffic congestion on road networks by reducing the time headway, enhancing the traffic capacity and improving the safety margins in car following. Furthermore, vehicle movement and driver’s behavior of conventional vehicles will be affected by the presence of automated vehicles in traffic networks. Despite different encouraging factors, automated driving raises some concerns such as possible loss of situation awareness, overreliance on automation and degrading driving skills in absence of practice. Moreover, coping with complex scenarios, such as merging at ramps and overtaking, in terms of interaction between automated vehicles and conventional vehicles need more research. This thesis work aims to investigate the effects of automated vehicles on driver’s behavior and traffic performance. A broad literature review in the area of driving simulators and psychological studies was performed to examine the automated vehicle effects on driver’s behavior. Findings from the literature survey, which has been served as setup values in the simulation study of the current work, reveal that the conventional vehicles, which are driving close to the platoon of automated vehicles with short time headway, tend to reduce their time headway and spend more time under their critical time headway. Additionally, driving highly automated vehicles is tedious in a long run, reduce situation awareness and can intensify driver drowsiness, exclusively in light traffic. In order to investigate the influences of automated vehicles on traffic performance, a microscopic simulation case study consisting of different penetration rates of automated vehicles (0, 50 and 100 percentages) was conducted in VISSIM software. The scenario network is a three-lane autobahn segment of 2.9 kilometers including an off-ramp, on-ramp and a roundabout with some surrounding urban roads. Outputs of the microscopic simulation in this study reveal that the positive effects of automated vehicles on roads are especially highlighted when the network is crowded (e.g. peak hours). This can definitely count as a constructive point for the future of road networks with higher demands. In details, average density of autobahn segment remarkably decreased by 8.09% during p.m. peak hours in scenario with automated vehicles. Besides, Smoother traffic flow with less queue in the weaving segment was observed. Result of the scenario with 50% share of automated vehicles moreover shows a feasible interaction between conventional vehicles and automated vehicles. Meaningful outputs of this case study, based on the input data from literature review, demonstrate the capability of VISSIM software to simulate the presence of automated vehicles in great extent, not only as an automated vehicle scenario but also a share of them, in traffic network. The validity of the output values nonetheless needs future research work on urban and rural roads with different traffic conditions.

Abstract

O expressivo crescimento do setor ferroviário com o processo de privatizações das operações a partir de 1996, fez com que a modalidade aumentasse sua participação na matriz de transportes brasileira. Porém, essa expansão, obtida essencialmente com a substituição e aumento de locomotivas e vagões, juntamente com a modernização do sistema de controle de tráfego, deverá em breve encontrar limites impostos pela geometria e superestrutura da malha ferroviária. O objetivo da dissertação é analisar como esses fatores afetam a capacidade de processamento de trens através de uma linha ferroviária singela. Para alcançar este objetivo desenvolveu-se um modelo capaz de identificar as características da via que restringem as velocidades e o headway das composições ferroviárias. O modelo proposto permite, através da análise de desempenho em cada um dos arcos de um trecho de linha ferroviária, obter uma medida de desempenho global no trecho e identificar os gargalos. O método adotado para determinar a capacidade do trecho para cenários operacionais alternativos é o da utilização de diagramas espaço-tempo. Os diagramas espaço-tempo são elaborados através de um algoritmo em MatLab que soluciona os conflitos nos cruzamentos para um determinado tempo de cruzamento nas estações e efetua a contagem de pares de trens. O desempenho dos trens em cada um dos arcos, dado de entrada do algoritmo, é adquirido através de um modelo de simulação de desempenho de trens elaborado pela Association of Amerian Railroads (AAR). Como aplicação prática apresenta-se uma análise de capacidade para um dos principais corredores de exportação, um trecho da Brasil Ferrovias S.A. entre as cidades de Santa Fé do Sul e Araraquara no estado de São Paulo. A análise dos resultados mostra que o principal fator limitante da velocidade média no espaço dos trens é a atual condição da superestrutura ferroviária e que, uma vez eliminada esta restrição, a supressão de passagens de nível e a relocação de estações de cruzamento, produzem ganhos expressivos. The expessive growth of the railway sector due to the privatization of the operations since 1996, is increasing the participation of this mode in the brazilian transport matrix. However, this growth is obtained mainly from the replacement and increase of the rolling stock and the modernization of the traffic control system, and will soon reach some important limits imposed by the railway geometry and superstructure. The thesis objective is to analyze how these factors affect the capacity to process trains through a single track railroad line. To reach this objective, a model that identifies the restrictions that impose limits to the speed and headways of the trains was developed. Through the performance analysis on each arc of a railway segment, the model obtains a global performance measure for the whole segment and identifies the bottlenecks. Time-space graphs are developed to determine the capacity of the segment for different operating scenarios. To build the space-time graphs, solve the conflicts at the crossings for a given time to cross and count the trains per day, an algorithm using the MathLab software was developed. The train performance on each arc is obtained through a simulation model developed by the Association of American Railroads (AAR). As a practical application, a capacity analysis of one of the most important export corridors is presented, a segment of the Brasil Ferrovias S.A. network between the cities of Santa Fé do Sul and Araraquara in the state of São Paulo. The analysis of the results shows that the present railway superstructure condition is the main train average space speed limiting factor and, once this restriction is eliminated, the supression of at grade crossings and the relocation of the crossing stations produce expressive gains.