A project funded by the Southeastern Transportation Research, Innovation, Development and Education Center, which is the U.S. Department of Transportation’s grant-funded, Regional (Southeastern) University Transportation Center (UTC) housed at the UFTI, is being led by Research Assistant Professor Dr. Clark Letter. The research team includes Dr. Lily Elefteriadou (UFTI professor and director) in collaboration with Dr. Mike Hunter and Dr. Chip White, both of the Georgia Institute of Technology.  The official STRIDE project title is “Evaluation of Advanced Vehicle and Communication Technologies through Traffic Microsimulation.”

The goal of this project is to develop a microsimulation extension for advanced transportation management strategies and evaluation procedures in relation to connected and autonomous vehicles. The research utilizes mobile and infrastructure devices to support these strategies. It also considers both mobility and environmental impacts. Improvements in traffic signal timing have the potential to significantly benefit the transportation system. One source of delay at signals is inefficient green time utilization in response to fluctuating demand. Other sources of delay are driver reaction-related delays, including delays at start-up. The use of autonomous and connected vehicle technology has the potential to reduce the impact of these two factors. Current simulation tools are not able to accurately replicate the functionality of autonomous and connected vehicles. Therefore, the impact of various strategies and market penetrations cannot be accurately assessed.

To see additional research, education and technology transfer projects funded by the STRIDE Center, visit https://stride.ce.ufl.edu/2017/03/2017-projects/.