Energy impacts of heavy vehicles in cooperative highway merging areas

The negative impacts of heavy vehicles in highway merging areas exacerbate vehicle energy consumption and pollutant emissions. Based on real-world vehicle operation data collected from merging areas on Chinese expressways, this paper analyzes the differences in driver behavior under the influence of heavy vehicles and establishes a driver behavior model. By introducing driver heterogeneity factors and heavy vehicle influence factors, the lane-changing game payoff function of merging vehicles is improved. A group vehicle guidance and allocation optimization model tailored to China’s road conditions is proposed, aiming to optimize traffic efficiency and minimize energy consumption. Simulation results demonstrate that vehicle–road coordination effectively mitigates the adverse effects of heavy vehicles in merging areas, significantly improving traffic efficiency and reducing frequent acceleration and deceleration. The results show an approximately 15–22% increase in average speed, a 7.3–13.1% reduction in average energy consumption, and a 4.1–16.4% decrease in pollutant emissions within the merging section.