Principal Investigator(s):
Michael Levin, Associate Professor, Civil, Environmental and Geo-Engineering
Project summary:
The objective of this methodology was to refine the preliminary results from previous work (11 percent fuel savings for one vehicle, one intersection) to an entire corridor of Signal Phasing and Timing (SPaT) signals, with different commercial vehicle (CV) market penetration, and with driver awareness of fuel savings benefits. The project will involve three parts: First, several vehicles will be instrumented with dedicated short-range communications (DSRC) receivers and GPS tracking to record SPaT data and the vehicle trajectories together. Offline, the project team will optimize the speed and powertrain control based on recorded SPaT data, using the recorded vehicle trajectories to identify the constraints of traffic flow. A living lab consisting of a GM car engine loaded by a transient hydrostatic dynamometer will be used to measure the fuel consumption with and without speed control. Second, the project team will conduct traffic flow simulations to study the impacts of higher market penetration on the overall fuel benefits, including the benefits to legacy vehicles which unintentionally use SPaT-based speed controls by following CVs. Third, network models will be used to predict changes in route choices as drivers recognize the benefits of fuel savings in the route utility. The numerical predictions of fuel savings will be combined into cost/benefit analyses to inform the Minnesota Department of Transportation on the future deployment of SPaT on other corridors.