Texas DOT offers recommendations and best practices for agencies looking to anticipate widescale implementation of connected and automated vehicles.

The recommendations include a detailed roadmap of how the agency--and others--should respond to the increasingly relevant technologies.

Date Posted
04/22/2019
TwitterLinkedInFacebook
Identifier
2019-L00875

Best Practices Guidebook for Preparing Texas for Connected and Automated Vehicles

Summary Information

Connected and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) are expected to dramatically change the way that transportation systems operate across the country. As the legal landscape for CAVs is still relatively uncertain, it is not uncommon for states to not adequately address such technologies. This can hamper administrative ability to prepare for CAV usage. A report by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin Center for Transportation Research, sponsored by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT), assessed existing and future CAV technologies and assembled recommendations on how TxDOT could prepare for expected developments. The recommendations are divided into activities that should be pursued in the short term (within the next five years), the medium term (five to fifteen years) and the long term (fifteen years or more).

The synthesized best practices are summarized below, and made slightly more general to apply to any state that is interested in anticipating the arrival of CAV technologies.

Lessons Learned

Short-term practices:

  • Establish a department-wide working group to:
    • Coordinate and provide to the Legislature technical advice as well as recommendations for legislative policy making and changes or additions to the state Transportation Code applicable to CAVs;
    • Oversee continuing research and testing needed to assess the technically feasible and economically reasonable steps for the state DOT to pursue over time, with emphasis on those actions that will encourage early CAV market penetration;
    • Create and update annually a CAV policy statement and plan;
    • Create and update annually a policy statement and plan for non-CAV vehicle support and operations during the transition to CAVs;
    • Coordinate CAV issues with AASHTO, other states, Transportation Research Board (TRB) committees, the state Department of Motor Vehicles, and the state Department of Public Safety.
  • The Traffic Operations Division (TRF), in coordination with other divisions, the districts, and other stakeholders, should establish and lead a team to:
    • Oversee research and testing on additional or changed traffic control devices and signage that will enhance the operations of CAVs;
    • Coordinate with industry in the short term on basic items in the Manual on Uniform Control Devices (MUTCD) that are proving challenging in CAV development and deployment, such as sensor-compatible lane striping, road buttons, and machine-readable signage;
    • Monitor and oversee development of Cooperative Intersection Collision Avoidance System (CICAS) technology and assist in test deployments on state highways and major arterial roads;
    • Monitor Cooperative-Adaptive Cruise Control and Emergency Stop device deployment and assess what steps the state DOT will need to take to assist in extending and translating this technology into throughput, such as improved platooning on trunk routes.
  • The Transportation Planning and Programming (TPP) Division, in coordination with other divisions, the districts, and other stakeholders, should establish and lead a team to:
    • Develop and continuously maintain a working plan for facilitating early adaptors of CAV technology, in particular the freight and public transportation industries;
    • Identify and begin planning with MPOs for the impacts of expected additional VMT driven by CAV adoption, particularly for assessing impacts on conformity demonstrations in non-attainment areas of the state;
    • Begin assessment for and development of a series of state-DOT-recommended VMT management and control incentives for responding to the likely CAV-induced VMT increases;
    • In coordination with the Public Transportation Division (PTN), begin to monitor and assess the impacts of SAVs on the department.

Mid-term practices:

  • The Department’s department-wide working group should continue to:
    • Create and update annually the CAV policy statement and plan;
    • Create and update annually the plan for non-CAV vehicle support and operations during the transition to CAVs;
    • Coordinate CAV issues with AASHTO, other states, TRB committees, the state Department of Motor Vehicles, and the state Department of Public Safety;
    • Coordinate and provide to the Legislature technical advice as well as recommendations for legislative policy making and changes or additions to the state Transportation Code.
  • The TRF Division, in coordination with other divisions, the districts, and other stakeholders, should:
    • Continue research and testing for CAV-enabled smart intersections, expanding from off-road test facilities to actual intersections;
    • Initiate research and testing for CAV-appropriate lane management operations, initially for platooning and CAV-only lanes;
    • Expand CAV control device research and testing specific to construction zone, detour, and nighttime operations; and
    • In cooperation with the engineering design divisions and the Maintenance Division (MNT), begin updating the various state DOT manuals that will be impacted by CAVs.
  • The TPP Division, in coordination with other divisions, the districts, and other stakeholders, should:
    • Research, test, and recommend incentives (for example, micro-tolling, time of day operations restrictions, etc.) for the control of congestion as well as increased VMT induced by CAVs;
    • In coordination with PTN and local governments, assess the impact of AVs in public transportation operations, leading to recommendations appropriate to the Department’s goal of congestion relief; and
    • Begin research and testing of area-wide traffic demand management operations made possible by CAV technology.

Long-term practices:

  • TRF and TPP should continue steps needed to identify the optimal traffic demand management strategies that are economically feasible and environmentally compliant, giving particular thought to centralized and automated allocation of routing and timing, as well as required use of SAVs operated to minimize VMT.
  • TRF, in coordination with the other engineering design divisions (Design Division, Bridge Division) and MNT, should research, test, and ultimately adopt changes to the department manuals optimized for CAV/SAV operations.
  • The engineering design divisions should research, test, and ultimately adopt roadway design elements that allow high-speed, but safe, CAV roadway operations in rural and uncongested suburban areas.
  • Finally, TPP, in coordination with TRF, PTN, and the engineering design divisions, should develop and recommend a series of options to the state DOT administration and state Transportation Commission for aggressive traffic demand management in the major metro areas and along congested trunk routes.

Keywords Taxonomy: