Cooperative adaptive cruise control and intelligent traffic signal interaction: a field operational test with platooning on a suburban arterial in real traffic
DOI: 10.1049/iet-its.2019.0742
archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified
Get this paper ↗ (DOI — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)
Summary
This paper reports on a field operational test (FOT) evaluating the performance of Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control (CACC) vehicles and their interaction with intelligent traffic signals (iTS) in real-world suburban traffic. The study addresses the need for real-life insights into Cooperative and Automated Vehicles (CAVs) on arterial roads, where previous research has largely focused on freeways. The primary motivation is to provide ground-truth data to help road authorities prepare infrastructure and to aid the development of modeling tools for CAV impact analysis in urban environments. The experiment was conducted on the N205 provincial arterial road in the Netherlands, a 12 km corridor with five intersections equipped with iTS. Seven Toyota Prius vehicles, fitted with factory ACC and aftermarket CACC systems, participated in the test. The vehicles operated with a default CACC gap of 0.6 seconds plus a 5-meter safety buffer. The FOT involved 34 runs across five scenarios varying by driving mode (manual, ACC, CACC) and iTS communication settings (regular, green recognition, green-phase extension). Runs included both three-vehicle and seven-vehicle platoons. Certified test drivers operated the vehicles, which were indistinguishable from standard cars to ensure natural interactions with surrounding traffic. Data was collected via vehicle sensors and processed to analyze time-headways, platoon stability, and disengagement events. The results demonstrated that CACC vehicles maintained significantly shorter and more stable time-headways compared to manual driving, with ACC showing longer headways than manual but with less variance. CACC platoons operated without incident, though frequent disengagements occurred due to cut-ins from other vehicles, particularly near intersections where lane changes and merges were required. Seven-vehicle platoons experienced more frequent disengagements and shorter continuous platooning times than three-vehicle platoons. While platoon break-ups were common, recoupling often occurred when vehicles regrouped at intersections or behind slower traffic. The study found that the effectiveness of iTS communication was negligible due to dynamic traffic signal controls providing unreliable time-to-green indications and vehicles rarely being at the head of queues. Consequently, no significant traffic flow improvements could be derived from the iTS interaction. The findings confirm that CACC technology performs reliably in suburban arterial environments, allowing for shorter time gaps than human-driven vehicles despite frequent disruptions from surrounding traffic. The study highlights that while many platoon break-ups are unavoidable due to cut-ins, the system remains safe and capable of recoupling. The limited success of iTS interaction suggests that static signal controls may be necessary for effective vehicle-infrastructure cooperation. These insights provide critical data for infrastructure planning and the refinement of simulation models to predict the impact of CAVs in mixed-traffic urban settings.
Key finding
CACC vehicles operated safely in real traffic with shorter and more stable time-headways than manual driving, though platoon continuity was frequently disrupted by cut-ins near intersections.
Methodology
field_study
Sample size: 7
Provenance
The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed.
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | Crossref | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-05 |
| archive | success | canonical_url | — | — | 7 | 2026-06-06 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
| clean | success | clean | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-05 |
| chunk | success | chunk | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-05 |
| embed | success | embed | Qwen/Qwen3-Embedding-8B | — | 1 | 2026-06-05 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-05 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 15 | 2026-06-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
Topics
Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.