Multivariate Effectiveness of Ecolane and Ecohmi Based Cooperative Vehicle-Infrastructure System

Abstract

The cooperative vehicle-infrastructure system (CVIS) offers opportunities to further enhance the potential of energy saving and emission reduction for eco-driving. However, it is still not clear about the effectiveness of CVIS on promoting eco-driving nor the multivariate effectiveness of CVIS designed for eco-driving on traffic flow and safety characteristics. A dedicated ecological lane (Ecolane) and ecological human-machine-interaction (EcoHMI) based CVIS (Ecolane-HMI-CVIS) were developed based on driving simulator technology. An experiment of 35 participants was conducted to study eco-driving behavior and final utility to identify the influence of Ecolane-HMI-CVIS. The results indicated that the Ecolane-HMI-CVIS enhanced eco-driving behavior and reduced emission, with CO and NOx significantly reduced by 10.72 % and 9.83 % respectively. The Ecolane-HMI-CVIS reduced the headway and promoted vehicle operation stability, ordering, and improved traffic capacity about 10 %. No negative impact of Ecolane-HMI-CVIS was observed on traffic safety. This study developed a test platform based on driving simulator to explore the multivariate influence of Ecolane-HMI-CVIS. In addition to analyzing the overall effect of Ecolane-HMI-CVIS during the whole experimental section, its detailed influence at each key zone and in spatial change process were also analyzed. This research contributed to better understanding of the working mechanism and effectiveness of Ecolane-HMI-CVIS, and provide technical and policy references of CVIS based eco-driving for traffic management departments.