Optimal Lane Management in Heterogeneous Traffic Network

This paper aims to determine an optimal allocation of autonomous vehicles in a multi-lane heterogeneous traffic network where the road is shared between autonomous and human-driven vehicles. The fundamental traffic diagram for such heterogeneous traffic networks is developed wherein the capacity of the road is determined as a function of the penetration rate and the headways of autonomous and human-driven vehicles. In this paper, we define two cost functions to maximize the throughput of the network and minimize the variation between flow rates. To solve the proposed optimization problem, an exhaustive search optimization approach is performed. Several numerical examples are presented to highlight the different influence of different design parameters on the allocation of autonomous vehicles.