Smart Cities and Intelligent Transportation Systems: Integration of Autonomous Vehicles and Their Impact on Congestion and Safety

Smart city is a concept used to describe a safe and efficient urban environment that uses technologies to enhance its economic growth and residence standards of livings. Smart mobility is an important aspect of smart city concept, and intelligent transportation systems (ITS) is a key component of smart mobility solutions. The ITS technology is one of the oldest smart city technologies and has been implemented in many cities around the world. ITS technology is influenced by the increasing prevalence of autonomous vehicles, and their integration in ITS is a significant step toward a fully automated transportation network. In the meantime, autonomous vehicles have to co-exist with non-autonomous vehicles. Thus, their integration into the system requires careful and gradual planning at vehicular and infrastructure level. The impact of autonomous vehicles on both congestion and safety can be positive and negative at the same time, and depends on autonomous vehicles penetration levels along with implemented traffic management strategies. This paper is a literature review that gives summary about smart cities, smart mobility, AVs and their integration in ITS. It provides some insights on the effect of autonomous vehicles on traffic congestion and safety.