Implementation of Connected Vehicle Technologies in Connecticut Revealed Benefits with a 90 Percent Reduction in Collision Risk Due to a Cloud-Based Digital Alert System Protecting Roadside Workers.
Collection of Connected Vehicle Deployments Across Six U.S. States Highlighted Benefits for Various Road Users, Including Transit, Emergency Vehicles, Roadside Workers, and Trucks.
California
Connecticut, United States
St. Petersburg, FL
Washington DC, District of Columbia, United States
Wyoming, United States
ITS Technology Use Case Library
Summary Information
In the fall of 2023, the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) began collecting use cases of ITS technologies from its member agencies. The goal was to highlight projects that had a tangible impact on communities across the U.S. This study included the summaries of 23 successful deployments of ITS technologies across the U.S. in total, which included six technologies focusing on Connected Vehicles (CV), 12 use cases focusing on Digital Infrastructure (DI), and five use cases of Automated Vehicles (AV).
METHODOLOGY
This summary focus on the six CV deployments. CV technologies use Vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications to enhance road safety, efficiency, and mobility. These systems gather data from short-range broadcasts and peer-to-peer exchanges to monitor the actions of other travelers, such as vehicles, bicyclists, pedestrians, and more, identifying potential hazards. The six CV deployments highlighted in the study were:
- “Connected Vehicle Applications for School Buses”, Alpharetta, Georgia, 2022
- “Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control for Freight”, California
- “Traffic Signal Integration for Rapid Transit”, St. Petersburg, Florida, 2023
- “Preventing EMS Collisions with Digital Alerting”, Washington, D.C.
- “Protecting Roadside Workers with Cloud-Based Alerts”, Connecticut, November 2021
- “Improving Digital Alerts for Connected Vehicles”, Wyoming, January 2021 to April 2022
FINDINGS
- Pilot deployment of CV application for school buses in Alpharetta, Georgia revealed a 13 percent decrease in travel times, 18 percent in average speeds, a 40 percent decrease in the number of signalized stops, and a ten percent decrease in fuel consumption.
- Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control for freight tested in California showed that trucks could potentially reduce fuel consumption by five to six percent and increase the average speeds of trucks by 19 percent. Average truck vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in certain time span could increase by close to 6 percent.
- Traffic signal integration for rapid transit in St. Petersburg, Florida involving 51 signalized intersections revealed a 35 percent reduction in travel time.
- Digital alert system deployed in Washington, D.C with the goal of preventing emergency medical service collisions by alerting nearby motorists inside their vehicle that an emergency vehicle was nearby, found a 25 percent speed reduction within the first second of receiving the alert. Speed reductions were deemed vital for avoiding crashes and ensuring the safety of both vehicles and pedestrians on the road.
- Cloud-Based Alerts system deployed in Connecticut to protect roadside workers by giving motorists advanced warning of any hazards on the road, such as roadside assistance and emergency vehicles, found that digital alerts lowered the risk of collision by 90 percent and reduced hard-braking by roadside incidents by 80 percent.
- Roadside and onboard units installed on state vehicles and partners’ trucks in Wyoming to improve digital alerts for CVs led to a 42 percent reduction in average crashes per year for all vehicles and up to 28 percent for truck traffic. Increased speed limit compliance, especially during severe weather conditions, were observed.
