Investigating the potential of convoy driving for congestion dispersion

It is well known that discharging flows at the downstream end of a congestion are considerably below capacity flow. This is due to cautious driving and retarded acceleration of drivers. As a consequence the duration of a congestion is longer and it disperses only if the arriving flow is sufficiently below the maximum capacity for a longer period. Platoon driving could be helpful to reach capacity flow. AICC (autonomous intelligent cruise control) minimises the average distance between the cars leading to an increasing number of cars leaving the congestion. By that way the time needed for the dispersion of a congestion and also its extension can be decreased considerably. In this paper the benefits of AICC for congestion dispersion are investigated. The undisturbed traffic flow, the formation of a congestion and its dispersion are simulated by a microscopic simulation tool. A convoy controller is presented which keeps a constant time headway. A combined strategy for the integration of platoons, platoon driving and disintegration under realistic scenarios is presented. It is shown that flow discharging a congestion can be increased by platoon driving over a limited range behind the downstream end of a congestion. Furthermore it is investigated how this benefit depends on the equipment rate.