Evaluation Approach for Safety Impact of Adaptive Cruise Control System by Using Micro Traffic Simulation

Abstract

Adaptive Cruise Control system (ACC) is one of the ITS technology and has been in widespread use gradually in Japan. The impacts of ACC installation on traffic accident within traffic flow has not been evaluated because of difficulty evaluating accident occurrence with respect to complexity of interaction between vehicles with and without ACC. Thus, in this study, the approach was developed to estimate traffic accident occurrence after installation of ACC by using a micro traffic simulation model which was basically modified by adding a function of perception-response process. In this approach, traffic accident occurrence was access by detecting conflict on the simulation. In addition, the evaluation method was developed by using proposed safety indicator. To evaluate the influence market penetration of ACC, many cases with different installation rate of ACC were simulated by using the proposed approach and relationship between installation rate and safety indicator was analyzed.