Description

Shockwaves’ and ‘harmonica-effects’ in traffic flows often lead to ghost traffic jams. These traffic jams are caused by sudden breaking or lane-changes and the reactions to this by traffic participants behind, most of the time the cause of the traffic jam is unclear for road users. Shockwave in Netherlands are responsible for over a fifth of traffic jams, 22%. On the A58 it even goes to 30-40%

The end of 2013 decided the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment, Department of Public Works and province of North Brabant, therefore, to take the bull by the horns and promote the implementation of the cooperative system oriented. Better utilization of the national program as a vehicle started the project Shockwave A58 in January 2014.On December 2015 a group of people directly involved tested the first cooperative service: a shockwave service, starting in February 2016, this service open for several hundred "regular" users.

The system uses Open architecture which is a traffic engineering milestone in which eleven consortia comprising of a total of thirty different parties including competitors have entered. This is the first time that there has been an open cooperative systems on public roads at that scale in the Netherlands in use.

Project Objectives:

Shockwave A58 system is a warning information and driver support service that makes use of Vehicle to Vehicle communication (V2V communication) to give personalized speed advice.

The outcome of the project is:

To reduce traffic jams.
To drive efficiently.
To improve safety of vulnerable road users (pedestrians, Cyclists).

Inputs

Road side units and V.I.P(Visual Image Processing Sensors) on-board sensors.
Short range communication is done via Wi-p suspended.
Long Distance Communication is using existing communication technology like 3G and 4G.
A 17 km section of A58 between Eindhoven and Tilburg was selected and for test was equipped with 34 Wi-Fi beacons.

Results

ZOOF and FlowPatrol provides speed advice and roadway advice, 40% of the participants follow the in-car speed advice, so they approach queue more slowly.
The project has taken big step in the development of co-operative services. With further application of acquired knowledge.
Communication: 802.11p can be used as a local ad-hoc network which is very fast: 88% of the messages have a delay less than 2 s.
3G can be used as global network, it is not so fast: 36 % of the messages have a delay less than 2 s, 29% have a delay between 3 and 5 s, 34% have a delay more than 5 s.
Behavior: Acceleration (and deceleration) is lower with advice at all intersections, A270 highway and Eindhoven trajectory.
Improved smoothness of traffic flow Reduction in CO2 emissions

Limitations

New mobility services like warning of road works, weather condition and approaching ambulance can be introduced.
Enthusiasm from Volunteers/Drivers and lots of feedback is required for future development.
Variable performance of GPS signal has a negative effect on performance of application.
Lack of Data Collected: Although a lot of data has been collected, more data would be desirable since most of the data is inconclusive.
Dependency on the system: Dependency on the system might lead to driver over-reliance and decrease in driver learning potential.
Low acceptance rate: Speed advice has been accepted by only 40% user. Further data analysis show that the acceptance rate is even lower.
Latency issues due to communication protocol: 3G and 4G communication protocol are prone to delay which affects the relavence of data.
Not Built in Service: Service needs to be built into cars and navigation systems in the future.