Citation

Yao H, Li X. Transp. Res. C Emerg. Technol. 2021; 129: e103182.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.trc.2021.103182

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Trajectory smoothing is an effective concept to control connected automated vehicles (CAVs) in mixed traffic to reduce traffic oscillations and improve overall traffic performance. However, smoother trajectories often lead to greater gaps between vehicles, which may incentivize human driven vehicles (HVs) from adjacent lanes to make cut-in lane changes. Such cut-in lane changes may compromise the expected performance from CAV trajectory smoothing. To figure out the reasons behind the issue, this paper designs a mixed traffic framework at a signalized intersection with multi-lane roads considering detailed trajectory control, car following and lane changing maneuvers all together. Based on the framework, this paper proposes a decentralized lane-change-aware CAV trajectory optimization model including discretionary lane change restraining and mandatory lane change yielding strategies. Riding comfort and traffic mobility are considered as a joint objective. And the complex non-linear lane-change-aware constraints are linearized to convert the proposed problem to a quadratic optimization problem. The linearization allows the investigated problem to be easily fed into a commercial solver. Numerical experiments are conducted to study the performance of the proposed model and to compare it with other models (e.g., a cooperative lane change model and a trajectory optimization model without the lane-change-aware mechanism) in different scenarios. First, results show that the HV lane changes cause reduction of half or more expected benefits of trajectory smoothing along a multi-lane segment adjacent to a signalized intersection. Then, we find that the proposed model outperforms the other models. Especially, the proposed model yields extra benefits in the system joint objective (10-25%), riding comfort (10-25%), travel time (1-8%), fuel consumption (3-15%) and safety (5-25%) compared with the trajectory optimization model without the lane-change-aware mechanism when CAV market penetration rate is not high. Sensitivity analyses on road segment lengths, signal cycle lengths, traffic saturation rates and through-vehicle rates show that the proposed model yields better system performance under most scenarios, e.g., 20% extra benefit at a short road segment length, 30% extra benefit at a long signal cycle length, 25% extra benefit at a high traffic saturation rate, and 25% extra benefit at a high through-vehicle rate.

Language: en

Keywords

Connected automated vehicle; Decentralized control; Lane-change-aware; Mixed traffic; Signalized intersections; Trajectory smoothing