Abstract

Road safety in urban mobility is a rising issue worldwide. With increasing number of vehicle ownership and traffic congestion on outdated road infrastructure, the threat of accidents becomes a serious issue as it impacts gravely the victim and their families. In 2023, data from the Société de l’Assurance Automobile du Québec (SAAQ) shows that 380 people died in road accidents in Quebec. A detailed analysis of road accidents in Montreal from 2012-2021 is provided to observe the most accident-prone locations, hours, and traffic flow. This thesis investigates the impact of reaction time of a vehicle occupied by a human driver on a signalized intersection with the use of simulations. Microscopic traffic models (MTMs) are utilized to examine the consequences of autonomous vehicles in mixed traffic scenarios. Simulation of Urban Mobility (SUMO) software with the Krauss car-following model was incorporated for case study 1 to do a quantitative comparison of the impact of reaction time on human-driven vehicles using microscopic simulations. The results show a positive correlation between the reaction time and number of collisions. Case Study 2 with the same setup was conducted to evaluate the dynamics of autonomous vehicles and human-driven vehicles in a mixed traffic environment on road safety. The AV market penetration rate is increased by 0%, 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% in the simulations. The results show that the existence of AVs enhances road safety and decreases the number of road conflicts.