Journal of Korean Society of Transportation ISSN:1229-1366(Print) 2234-4217(Online) 대한교통학회지

With the nationwide trend, the number of cars registered per capita is increasing, and numerous efforts are currently being made to meet the growing demand for vehicles on the road. Self-driving technology is also one of these efforts, and this study attempts to present the concept of self-driving cars through road reorganization and maintenance corresponding to the introduction of self-driving vehicles. The Flex Zone is a concept that first appeared in the Seattle Urban Comprehensive Plan in 2017 and refers to a road using a multi-purpose curb space that utilizes road use priorities according to land use. The road occupancy area required for system-based autonomous vehicle traffic is expected to decrease compared to the same number of general vehicles passing through, which will allow for the creation of spare sites along with the increase in the capacity of road space. This study aims to establish a new concept of Flex Zone that can respond to autonomous driving era by subdividing the existing multi-purpose Use case for free space on the road that can occur in the autonomous vehicle era, build an optimization algorithm for multi-purpose placement considering accessibility, and check the operation characteristics by time. To this end, demand estimation data were aggregated using the collected image data after selecting the spatial range, and the MCLP (Maximum Covering Location Problem) that maximizes the demand for use of the Flex Zone was used for model construction. According to the analysis through the constructed algorithm, the optimized use case arrangement varies by time zone, and accordingly, it was confirmed that the purpose of using the road curb space could change dynamically depending on the time zone, passage traffic volume, and surrounding land use.