Robust design of CAV-Dedicated lanes considering CAV demand uncertainty and lane reallocation policy

Reduced headways of connected and automated vehicles (CAV) provide opportunities to address traffic congestion and environmental adversities. This benefit can be utilized by deploying CAV-dedicated lanes (CAVDL). This paper presents a bi-level optimization model that captures CAV market size uncertainty. The upper level determines the links (and number of lanes) for CAVDL deployment to minimize emissions. It considers lane reallocation policies that account for the prospect of smaller width of CAV-dedicated lane due to the smaller lateral wander of CAV tire tracks. This can increase the total number of lanes on wide highway sections. At the lower level, equilibrium and demand diffusion models capture travelers’ route and vehicle-type choices. The bi-level model is formulated as a min–max mathematical program with equilibrium conditions and solved using the cutting-plane scheme and active-set algorithm. The computational experiments indicate that the robust plans have superior performance compared to the deterministic plan in pessimistic cases.