A microscopic simulation study on the potential impact of vehicle connectivity on secondary crashes.
Nationwide, United States
Impact of connected vehicles on mitigating secondary crash risk
Summary Information
This study established a modeling framework to assess the potential impacts of vehicle connectivity on secondary crashes in an urban environment. Movement of connected vehicles equipped with vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications were modeled using the Paramics microsimulation tool. As a surrogate measure of safety, minimum time-to-conflict was calculated across several scenarios with and without connected vehicles at varied market penetration rates.
FINDINGS
Simulation found that connected vehicles can reduce secondary crash risk by one-third in areas with high-volume traffic and 25 percent connected vehicle market penetration. In areas with few connected vehicles (5 percent market penetration) crash risk decreased by 10 percent where traffic volume was high, but was negligible where traffic volume was low.
