Adaptability Assessment Framework for Public Transit Systems with Automated Vehicles on Open Flow Roads

Automated driving technology accelerates the transformation of the present urban transportation patterns. Urban public transit systems are generally the frontier of applying innovative techniques to realize automation. Although different types of innovative automated public transportation modes have been proposed, the automation of conventional public transit systems still attracts manufacturers, operation agencies, and transit administrations. This paper presents a framework for adaptability assessment for public transit systems with automated vehicles on open flow roads from both sides of vehicle adaptation to different scenarios and impacts to mixed traffic flows. This framework contains two-side index system and checklist to cover different scenarios for transit operation. The study observed both testing automated buses and human driving buses in Shanghai connected intelligent vehicle testing zone. The result suggests that the automated driving buses at the current technological stage presents gaps compared to human driving buses.