During the summer of 2022, CITIES opened one visiting undergraduate research position:
Vehicles’ Cooperation at Merging Zones in a Mixed Traffic Environment
Student: Yonas Tesfai
Faculty Supervisor: Monica Menendez
Autonomous driving in a mixed-traffic environment can reduce road congestion and delays while increasing capacity, but it also poses a number of challenges. In this research, Yonas conducted a literature review on freeway merging in an automated vehicle environment. This research broadened his knowledge of traffic engineering systems and traffic simulator software, particularly Vissim, a microscopic multi-modal traffic flow simulation software. Yonas was able to model both a freeway merging section and a major downtown. In the model, he also incorporated traffic volumes and traffic signal controllers, furthermore, he investigated network performance parameters such as travel time, delay, speed, and emissions.