An evaluation of lane management strategy for CAV priority in mixed traffic

Abstract

Abstract The emergence of connected autonomous vehicles (CAVs) has the potential to dramatically increase road capacity, and the provision of dedicated lanes for CAVs is a common management strategy to ensure that CAVs take appropriate priority over other vehicles. However, existing models of CAV lane management do not perform well at low CAV market penetration rates. Therefore, a novel model is proposed to address this shortcoming in this paper, and qualified human‐driven vehicles (HDVs) are allowed to enter the CAV priority lane when there is a low CAV penetration rate. A theoretical model is proposed to examine the impacts of three managed lane strategies under mixed traffic and then compare three lane management strategies under different CAV penetration rates and traffic demands. The results show that these lane management strategies can improve throughput, reduce travel time, increase speed, and reduce the variance of the distribution of vehicle speeds under different penetration rates and traffic demands.