CAV Impacts on Road Safety + Road Network Performance

CAVs may offer significant benefits for network performance, but evidence is limited. DfT has recently completed an analysis of potential impacts of CAVs on traffic flow and road capacity. However this did not examine wider issues on how CAVs could affect network traffic - this research seeks to further address two of these areas, safety and alternative use of road space for different vehicles and speeds: Safety - our previous research indicated significant potential benefits for journey times, delay and reliability. However these benefits did not account for either the effects of incidents on delay and disruption to traffic flow (which might constrain the benefits),or the potential positive effects of CAVs in reducing incidents and the disruption these cause to traffic flow. Alternative use of road space - we will also want to consider operational scenarios where traffic is managed differently, to consider the potential benefits of (for example) using dedicated lanes for CAVs and at what stage such an intervention might have beneficial effects.