New Strategies for the Emergency Vehicle Routing to Reduce Response Time Using Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications
Project Title
New Strategies for the Emergency Vehicle Routing to Reduce Response Time Using Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications
University
Old Dominion
Principal Investigator
Mecit Cetin, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Old Dominion University
PI Contact Information
Funding Sources and Amounts Provided
Old Dominion University — $70,000 matching funds only
Total Project Cost
$70,000
Agency ID or Contract Number
DTRT12GUTC17
Start Date
5/1/12
End Date
9/30/14
Description of Research Project
Developing route strategies for emergency vehicles (EV) is crucial in reducing response times to emergency situations and for improving EV location awareness to background traffic. This research is directed at developing strategies using connected-vehicles and connected-infrastructure to exchange locations, speeds, and signal timings to allow EVs to travel efficiently and safely through urban environments.
It will be assumed that, in a connected environment, vehicles are aware of the system state and can exchange critical information. In particular, the EV can send its intended route to other vehicles and may direct some vehicles to stop or change lanes to clear a path for itself. This proposed research will make use of the traffic flow theory (e.g., shockwave theory) and optimization techniques to find best strategies that can be employed to allow the EV to travel through the network as quickly as possible. Such strategies can involve breaking platoons at signals, signal preemption, re-routing of some vehicles, forced lane changing, etc. Identifying such strategies and choosing one or several of them to be employed in real time (depending on the network and traffic conditions) comprise the essence of this research.
The developed strategies will be tested in a microscopic traffic simulation environment under various scenarios including under-saturated and oversaturated conditions over varying network configurations (e.g., multiple signalized intersections along a corridor).
Implementation of Research Outcomes
The methods developed in this study were implemented in a micro simulation environment. The simulation results show the proposed strategies can shorten the travel times significantly for EVs through congested signalized intersections. The proposed methods are not implemented in the field. As connected-vehicle technologies become more mature, the proposed methods can be implemented in the field in the future.
Impacts and Benefits of the Project
The methods developed in this study were implemented in a micro simulation environment. The simulation results show the proposed strategies can shorten the travel times significantly for EVs through congested signalized intersections.
Papers
- C.A. Jordan, M. Cetin, and R.M. Robinson, “Clearing Paths for Emergency Vehicles Using Vehicle-to-vehicle Communication” The 92nd Annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., January 13-17, 2013.
- C.A. Jordan, M. Cetin, and R.M. Robinson, “Clearing Paths for Emergency Vehicles Using Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communication” Transportation Research Record. Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, 2381, pp. 45–53, 2013.
- Jordan, C. and M. Cetin, “Signal Preemption Strategy for Emergency Vehicles Using Vehicle to Infrastructure Communication,” 94th Annual meeting of the TRB, Washington, D.C. January 11-15, 2015, paper # 15-5723.
Web Links
Final Report: ODU_TranLIVE_Final Report_Impove Travel Times
Keywords
- emergency vehicle routing
- probe vehicles
- connected vehicles
- vehicle-to-vehicle communication