Simulating the impact of privately owned automated vehicles within the region Test Bed Lower Saxony, Germany.

Automated and connected vehicles are assumed to have a major impact on road safety, traffic flow, energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, as well as on future mobility. This paper aims to analyze, the impact of privately owned automated vehicles on travel behavior in the region covering the Test Bed Lower Saxony in Germany. The main focus is laid on the evaluation of long-distance trips in the entire study area as well as on commuter journeys to and from the city of Brunswick. An agent-based demand model in conjunction with a traffic flow model was used to simulate four scenarios with different penetration rates of fully automated vehicles. The results show a major shift in the mode share, an increasing of the daily mileage, and reduced travel time of the motorized individual transport, as well as minor changes in travel distance and total traffic volume. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]