  While automated vehicle (AV) research has grown steadily in recent years, the
impact of automated lane changing behavior on transportation systems remains a
largely understudied topic. The present work aims to explore the effects of
automated lane changing behavior on urban network efficiency as the penetration
rate of AVs increases. To the best of the authors knowledge, this represents
the first attempt to do so by isolating the effects of the lane changing
behavior; this was obtained by considering AVs with automated lateral control,
yet retaining the same longitudinal control characteristics of conventional
vehicles (CV). An urban road network located in Hannover, Germany, was modeled
with the microsimulation software SUMO, and several scenarios were analyzed,
starting from a baseline with only CVs and then progressively increasing the AV
penetration rate with 10% increments. Results highlight a modest, but
statistically significant, decrease in system performance, with travel times
increasing, and average speed and network capacity decreasing, as penetration
rates increase. This was likely caused by a more prudent behavior of AVs, which
accepted larger gaps than CVs when performing lane changing maneuvers.
