Modeling the Fundamental Diagram of Mixed Traffic Flow With Dedicated Lanes for Connected Automated Vehicles

To solve the problems of when to set up connected automated vehicles (CAVs) dedicated lanes and how many CAVs dedicated lanes to set up under different penetration rates of CAVs, this work focuses on modeling the fundamental diagram of mixed traffic flow with dedicated lanes for CAVs. Firstly, the car-following modes and their proportion of mixed traffic flow without and with CAVs dedicated lanes are analyzed. Secondly, the fundamental diagram of mixed traffic flow is derived based on car-following models to analyze the traffic capacity with and without CAVs dedicated lanes. Then, the relevant properties of the fundamental diagram with CAVs dedicated lanes are proposed and proved. Finally, the sensitivity of related parameters (e.g., CAVs penetration rate, time headway, and free-flow speed) in the fundamental diagram is discussed. Results show that (1) the increase of CAVs penetration rate and free-flow speed can improve the traffic capacity; (2) the design of smaller CAVs time headway benefits traffic capacity. Moreover, one and two CAVs dedicated lanes of three manual lanes are set to improve the traffic capacity to the greatest extent when the penetration rate of CAVs reaches 0.6 and 0.86, respectively. It is noteworthy that developing CAVs dedicated lanes under a reasonable CAVs penetration rate does not waste resources and increases traffic congestion while improving traffic capacity.

Automated summary

This study aims to address the issues of when and how many dedicated lanes for connected automated vehicles (CAVs) should be set up. The researchers analyzed the car-following models and their proportions in mixed traffic flow with and without CAVs dedicated lanes. They derived the fundamental diagram of mixed traffic flow and analyzed the traffic capacity with and without CAVs dedicated lanes. The study also discussed the sensitivity of related parameters and found that increasing CAVs penetration rate and free-flow speed can improve traffic capacity.