Traffic managements with autonomous vehicles considering bounded rational day-to-day traffic dynamics

• Main Author: Guo, Zhihong
• Other Authors: Wang Zhiwei
• Format: Thesis-Doctor of Philosophy
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2020
• Subjects: Engineering::Civil engineering::Transportation
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/144549
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Day-to-day dynamics and corresponding traffic management measures are considered to have great significance in solving congestion problem, since they can predict every day’s traffic flow evolution in the network and adjust the control schemes accordingly. Meanwhile, autonomous vehicle (AV) technology is receiving more and more attentions from researchers recently. In particular, the controllable property of AVs, especially in terms of travel routing choices, also provides us some inspiration on the innovative day-to-day traffic management methods. On the other hand, more and more researches are being done on more general assumptions on routing principle like bounded rationality user equilibrium (BRUE) in the underlying day-to-day dynamics for more accurate prediction of traffic flow trajectories. In this doctoral research, we aim to propose more general BR-based day-to-day dynamics and day-to-day traffic flow control schemes with the innovative AV technology under such underlying flow adjustment process. We first investigate a day-to-day flow evolution considering choice inertia, a specific aspect of BRUE which focus on the irrational preference on the previous route choice in travelers’ everyday routing behavior. Next, we focus on the day-to-day dynamics and traffic flow control in the mixed traffic network consisting of AVs and conventional vehicles (CVs). The first AV-based model assumes that all AVs use the routes that allocated by the central agent and CV users adjust their route choice with BR routing assumption. AV users have an acceptable range for travel cost which is the same to the indifference band of CV users. Then, we extended the AV routing control scheme by considering a partial control of AVs and combination with toll pricing. In this model, CV users are assumed as BRUE player, while uncontrolled AV users are assumed as UE player. An exemption of toll pricing is assumed to be the incentive for controlled users to accept the allocated routes. A general framework is developed for the flow adjustment process and dynamical control scheme which is more flexible for real implementation. Finally, a dynamical deployment scheme for inclusive AV lanes is proposed as another possible application of AV-based traffic flow control scheme. Alternatively, we assume AV users and CV users are both bounded rational, but with different indifference band in this model. We adjust the location and number of AV lanes in the network to affect travelers’ routing choice and flow evolution.