Full deployment of mobility applications may be capable of eliminating more than 1/3rd of the travel delay that is caused by congestion.

Results from preliminary estimates from literature on Dynamic Mobility Applications.

Date Posted
06/03/2013
Identifier
2013-B00845
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Benefits of Dynamic Mobility Applications: Preliminary Estimates from the Literature

Summary Information

The connected vehicle research program is being sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) to enable safe, interoperable, networked wireless communications among vehicles (light vehicles, transit, and freight), the infrastructure, and travelers' personal communications devices to make surface transportation safer, smarter, and greener.

As part of the connected vehicle research effort, the USDOT Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) Joint Program Office (JPO) initiated the Dynamic Mobility Applications (DMA) Program in 2009 to expedite the development, testing, commercialization, and deployment of transformative mobility applications by fully leveraging new technologies, including wireless communications, and federal investment to maximize the productivity of the surface transportation system and enhance the mobility of individuals within the system. The DMA Program identified 30 high-priority applications that can improve the nature, accuracy, precision and/or speed of dynamic decision making by both system managers and system users. This analysis examined the available quantitative information on the potential mobility benefits of the connected vehicle Dynamic Mobility Applications.

Methodology

Since the Dynamic Mobility Applications (DMA) are still being defined, they have neither been field-tested nor simulated. However there have been some simulation, field-testing, and deployment of closely related applications. Data on closely-related applications, gathered from over 45 sources, was collected and analyzed. These observed or simulated benefits were taken to be illustrative of the benefits that may be obtained from similar connected vehicle mobility applications. The metrics used varied from study to study, based upon the goal of the application being studied or the project. Delay reduction was the most frequently found measure for mobility impacts; however others such as increased speed, capacity increase, and reduced stop time were among the others observed. Crash reduction was the most frequently cited safety metric.

The set of mobility applications provide more than just mobility benefits. They also have the potential to generate energy benefits (e.g., decrease in fuel consumption), environmental benefits (e.g., decrease in greenhouse gases (GHGs), and air pollutant emissions) and safety benefits (e.g., decrease in number and severity of primary and secondary crashes, reduced incident response time). This analysis focused only on the mobility benefits.

Results

The results of the analysis show that the high priority DMA will reduce the impact of all six causes of congestion while simultaneously increasing safety and benefiting the environment.
  • Based on the limited data currently available from modeling and field trials of similar applications, full deployment of mobility applications may be capable of eliminating more than one-third of the travel delay that is caused by congestion.
  • The Freight Advanced Traveler Information Systems (FRATIS) bundle of applications can provide significant improvements in freight travel times (approximately 20 percent in the one available study), as well as significantly reducing the total number of truck movements (which also reduces overall congestion) as well as other benefits.
While outside the scope of this study, DMA will also reduce crashes, improve safety, and provide emissions reductions.