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This paper aims to explore whether drivers would adapt their behavior when they drive among automated vehicles (AVs) compared to driving among manually driven vehicles (MVs).Understanding behavioral adaptation of drivers when they encounter AVs is crucial for assessing impacts of AVs in mixed-traffic situations. Here, mixed-traffic situations refer to situations where AVs share the roads with existing nonautomated vehicles such as conventional MVs.

A driving simulator study is designed to explore whether such behavioral adaptations exist. Two different driving scenarios were explored on a three-lane highway: driving on the main highway and merging from an on-ramp. For this study, 18 research participants were recruited.

Behavioral adaptation can be observed in terms of car-following speed, car-following time gap, number of lane change and overall driving speed. The adaptations are dependent on the driving scenario and whether the surrounding traffic was AVs or MVs. Although significant differences in behavior were found in more than 90% of the research participants, they adapted their behavior differently, and thus, magnitude of the behavioral adaptation remains unclear.

The observed behavioral adaptations in this paper were dependent on the driving scenario rather than the time gap between surrounding vehicles. This finding differs from previous studies, which have shown that drivers tend to adapt their behaviors with respect to the surrounding vehicles. Furthermore, the surrounding vehicles in this study are more “free flow'” compared to previous studies with a fixed formation such as platoons. Nevertheless, long-term observations are required to further support this claim.

The purpose of this study is to address the extended travel time caused by dwelling time at stations for passengers on traditional rail transit lines. To mitigate this issue, the authors propose the “Non-stop” design, which involves trains comprised of modular vehicles that can couple and uncouple from each other during operation, thereby eliminating dwelling time at stations..

The main contributions of this paper are threefold: first, to introduce the concept of non-stop rail transit lines, which, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, has not been researched in the literature; second, to develop a framework for the operation schedule of such a line; and third, the author evaluate the potential of its implementation in terms of total passenger travel time.

The total travel time was reduced by 6% to 32.91%. The results show that the savings were more significant for long commutes and low train occupancy rates.

The non-stop system can improve existing lines without the need for the construction of additional facilities, but it requires technological advances for rolling stock.

To eliminate dwelling time at stations, the authors present the “Non-stop” design, which is based on trains composed of locomotives that couple and uncouple from each other during operation, which to the best of the authors’ knowledge has not been researched in the literature.