Optimization of Traffic Flow of Automatically Controlled Trucks at Merging Areas of Motorways

Demand for freight transport is ever increasing. This demand in the European Union (EU) countries has increased about 3 times during the last three decades. Relatively, the same trend has been reported for the Netherlands. Motorways have a more important role in the road freight transport than other categories of roads. Now, they carry about 40 % of all vehicle-kilometers (CBS). The length of the motorway network in the EU countries during the above period has tripled, mainly because of rapid increase of car ownership and passenger traffic. Dutch motorways, however, were extended less than twice during the same period. It can be concluded that the capacity of the motorway network in the Netherlands, during the last two decades, has been increased much less than the mobility of freight and passenger transport (total ton-km or passenger-km). However, the required high investment (for building the motorway and the acquisition of its right-of-way) and also its negative environmental impact can be considered as major factors for limiting further development. Extrapolating this trend into the future, much more congestion on the motorways would be expected. For improving the level of service, in some short sections of existing motorways (specially near to ports and major freight terminals) a dedicated lane for trucks has been built. But, such a measure will not be sufficient to answer to the demand of freight transport in future. Automation of vehicle operation would allow closer vehicle spacing, which could enhance traffic capacity. It also might improve the road safety by reducing the risk of accidents due to driver’s negligence and errors, which are responsible for a large share of accidents. Therefore, automation may be considered as one of the most promising options for facing the above challenge. However, operation of automatically guided vehicles (trucks) still has many uncertainties, which might be analyzed in order to be detected how to deal with them.