How Custom Vehicle Modifications Can Improve Traffic Flow Efficiency

Vehicle modifications can improve a car’s performance and make it look unique. However, it’s essential to remember that specific customizations may not be legal or increase your insurance rates.

The simulated traffic flow in this article is based on platooning strategies and collision avoidance. Several vehicles with the exact destination directions are grouped into one platoon to ensure smooth traffic progression.

Increased Speed

Several studies have shown that implementing CAV positively impacts traffic flow, such as increasing the vehicle speed in the traffic stream. They also allow for shorter gaps between vehicles and more intelligent control of complex maneuvers like platooning or lane changing, which help maximize road capacity utilization.

In addition, AVs can exchange information with the surrounding environment via V2X communication links, which means they can adjust their driving behavior accordingly. This capability is crucial for improving traffic flows and decreasing trip duration and distance. Using microscopic traffic simulators, researchers have compared the performance of human drivers and AVs at traffic intersections. Introducing the white phase concept, allowing AVs to dictate how they should proceed through an intersection, can significantly increase traffic flow efficiency.

Fewer Traffic Jams

Do you encounter sudden traffic slowdowns with no identifiable cause, like construction or a fender bender? That’s what engineers call a “phantom traffic jam.” Researchers have found that mounting sensors in cars can help to reduce them.

Microscopic models are used to simulate traffic patterns at a regional level. They consider vehicle trajectories, roadway networks, traffic composition, speed distributions, and origins/destinations.

When a driver follows a preceding vehicle in a car-following mode, the driver typically maintains a tight gap with the driver in front. This causes a driver to decelerate, leading to continuous traffic flow disturbance and delays. By incorporating the preceding vehicles’ acceleration and traffic density information into the FVD model, it is possible to suppress such external disturbances and enhance traffic flow stability. This is accomplished by utilizing a V2V communication system. When a lead-connected vehicle hits congestion, it broadcasts messages to trailing connected vehicles to warn them of the delay ahead and slow down. In turn, these custom vehicle graphics Austin TX signal their reduced speeds to non-equipped vehicles traveling behind them, which then slow down. P pacing the traffic flow eliminates inexplicable road blockages and improves the freeway’s mobility.

Reduced Density

A new car-following model that takes into account the traffic density and acceleration of a preceding vehicle has been proposed by researchers. The improved model can suppress the effect of external disturbances on traffic flow, alleviate congestion and reduce travel delays. This model was established based on V2V communication, and it considers the time-varying transmission delay and packet loss.

Linear stability analysis was performed on the improved model, and critical stability curves were obtained. These curves show that the traffic flow stable region will be enlarged as the parameters b, p, and m increase.

Numerical simulations also showed that the new model can reduce the amplitude of density waves. For example, when the DAVD model was applied to patterns (a) and (b), the standard deviation of velocity distribution and hysteresis loops were smaller than in practice (c). The results indicate that perceiving traffic density information and acceleration of a preceding vehicle effectively suppresses density waves and centralizes the headway space to prevent uniform traffic flow from developing into a chaotic one.