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2025 Vol.43, Issue 4 Preview Page

Article

Analysis of Potential Traffic Safety Improvement Benefits by Autonomous Vehicles on Freeways

고속도로 자율주행 도입에 따른 잠재적 교통안전 개선 효과 분석에 관한 연구

Hyeonseok JIN1
,
Aram JUNG2
,
Cheol OH3*
진 현석1
,
정 아람2
,
오 철3*
1M.S. Student, Department of Smart City Engineering, Hanyang University, Gyeonggi 15588, Korea
2Post-Doctor, Department of highway & Transportation Research, Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology, Gyeonggi 10223, Korea
3Professor, Department of Transportation and Logistics Engineering, Hanyang University, Gyeonggi 15588, Korea
1한양대학교 스마트시티공학과 석사과정
2한국건설기술연구원 도로교통연구본부 박사후연구원
3한양대학교 교통·물류공학과 교수
*Corresponding Author
31 August 2025. pp. 463-482
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Abstract

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are expected to show more stable driving behavior than manual vehicles (MVs), which results in higher possibility of improving safety in the traffic flow. In uninterrupted mixed traffic flow, vehicle interactions between AVs and MVs occur in car following situations. These car following situations are categorized into four different types such as AV-AV pair, MV-AV pair, AV-MV pair, and MV-MV pair. The four types of car following situations in the mixed traffic flows are expected to have different safety characteristics due to differences in the driving behavior of each driving pair. The purpose of this study is to develop a methodology to quantitatively identify the potential improvement of traffic safety benefits based on the analysis of mixed car following situations on freeways. In this study, a multi-agent driving simulator (MADS) was used to collect driving behavior information and analyze driving safety in mixed car following situations. A novel measure, referred to as safety improvement score (SIS), is proposed as a part of the proposed methodology to evaluate the impact of introducing AVs on traffic safety. Results show that freeway hazardous spots and sections are observed at interchanges, deceleration lanes, and acceleration lanes, in which merging and diverging events occurs frequently. The largest safety improvement based on SIS due to AVs is achievable in the entry and exit situations of freeway interchanges, and the safety improvement is less effective on freeway mainlines such as straight and curved sections. In particular, the following MV in AV-MV pair on straight sections was analyzed to have less safety improvement due to the low compliance with the conservative driving behavior of the leading AV. The results of this study are expected to be used to facilitate the development of autonomous driving technologies and to identify road sections where road safety facilities, including infrastructure-based AV guidance information, need to be installed.

Keywords
autonomous driving
driving safety
mixed car-following
multi-agent driving simulator
traffic safety benefits

자율차는 비자율자에 비해 안정적인 주행행태를 보여 교통류의 안전성이 향상될 것으로 예상된다. 혼재교통류에서는 자율차(Autonomous vehicle, AV)와 비자율차(Manual vehicle, MV)의 상호작용이 발생하며, 4가지 추종 상황(AV-AV 쌍, MV-AV 쌍, AV-MV 쌍, MV-MV 쌍)이 나타난다. 혼재교통류의 4가지 차량 추종 상황은 추종 상황별 주행행태 차이로 인해 서로 다른 안전성을 가질 것으로 고려된다. 본 연구의 목적은 고속도로에서 자율주행 도입으로 인해 얻을 수 있는 잠재적 교통안전 개선 효과를 계량화하는 기법을 개발하는 것이다. 본 연구에서는 멀티 에이전트 주행 시뮬레이터(Multi-Agent driving simulator, MADS)를 활용해 주행행태정보를 수집하고, 혼합 차량 추종 상황에서의 주행안전성을 분석하였다. 자율주행차 도입이 교통안전에 미치는 영향을 평가하기 위한 방법론으로 안전성 개선 점수(Safety improvement score, SIS)를 제시하였다. 주행안전성 분석결과, 도로 위험 지점 및 구간은 모든 추종 상황에서 인터체인지, 감속차로, 가속차로를 포함한 인터체인지 진출입 상황으로 도출되었다. 이는 강제적인 차로변경 및 가·감속으로 인해 차량의 주행안전성이 크게 저하되기 때문으로 해석된다. SIS 분석결과, 고속도로 인터체인지 진출입 상황에서 SIS 기반 안전성이 가장 크게 개선되며, 고속도로 본선에서는 안전성 개선이 미약한 것으로 나타났다. 특히, 직선 구간에서 AV-MV 쌍의 후행 비자율차는 선행 자율차의 보수적인 주행행태에 순응하는 정도가 낮아 교통안전 개선 효과가 적은 것으로 분석되었다. 본 연구의 결과는 자율주행 기술 개발 방향 제시 및 혼재교통류의 교통안전 향상을 위한 교통인프라 설치 구간 선정에 활용이 가능할 것으로 기대된다.

키워드
자율주행
주행안전성
혼합 차량 추종
Multi-agent driving simulator
교통안전 개선 효과
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Information
  • Publisher :Korean Society of Transportation
  • Publisher(Ko) :대한교통학회
  • Journal Title :Journal of Korean Society of Transportation
  • Journal Title(Ko) :대한교통학회지
  • Volume : 43
  • No :4
  • Pages :463-482
  • Received Date : 2025-02-28
  • Revised Date : 2025-03-24
  • Accepted Date : 2025-04-29
  • DOI :https://doi.org/10.7470/jkst.2025.43.4.463
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