Impact of Synchronised Flow in Oversaturated City Traffic on Energy Efficiency of Conventional and Electrical Vehicles

In this study of city traffic, we show that empirical synchronised flow patterns, which have been revealed recently in oversaturated traffic, exhibit considerable impact on the energy efficiency of vehicles. In particular, we have found out that energy consumption in oversaturated city traffic can decrease considerably when the oversaturated city traffic consists of synchronised flow patterns rather than consisting of moving queues of the classical traffic flow theory at traffic signals. Using empirical GNSS data measured by navigation devices on two different road sections in Düsseldorf, Germany, we show that synchronised flow patterns and moving queues differ in their cumulated vehicle acceleration (a sum of positive speed differences along a vehicle trajectory) despite similar mean speeds. Energy efficiency in return is dependent on the cumulated vehicle acceleration. We consider both the fuel consumption of conventional vehicles with combustion engines and the energy balance of electrical vehicles.