A Distributed Urban Traffic Congestion Prevention Mechanism for Mixed Flow of Human-Driven and Autonomous Electric Vehicles

Abstract

Traffic congestion in urban areas has become a critical problem that municipal governments cannot overlook. Meanwhile, mixed traffic systems containing both autonomous and human-driven electric vehicles ramp up the challenge for traffic management in urban areas. Although numerous researchers have proposed traffic control heuristics to alleviate traffic congestion problems in the recent literature, scant research has addressed the joint problems of route and charging strategies for electric vehicles along with urban traffic congestion prevention. Accordingly, this work tackles the complex task of traffic management in urban areas during peak periods by using practical congestion prevention strategies that consider the characteristics of mixed traffic flows and the charging demands of electric vehicle users. Notably, we apply support vector regressions to compute the charging time at each charging point and the traverse time of an electric vehicle at each road segment/intersection, based on historical traffic data. The simulation results reveal that the proposed algorithms are feasible because they can avoid possible occurrences of traffic congestion during rush hours and provide the routes and charging options that are chosen by electric vehicle users.

Assessing the Role of Autonomous Vehicles in Urban Areas: A Systematic Review of Literature

“…These sub-themes were given a wide scope to accommodate the benefits of AVs in urban areas. From a social and economic perspective, according to studies [29][30][31], AVs in public transportation have improved traffic flow and reduced congestion. By decreasing transportation times and related expenses, these developments improve the economic efficiency of urban areas.…”

“…AV shuttles improve current transit services by making cost-efficient benefits [32]. Associated environmental benefits include improved air quality with average reduction of nitrogen dioxide concentrations up to −4% [30,40,41]. AVs and micro mobility can improve transportation landscape and safety [42].…”

Preventing urban traffic congestion using VANET technology in urban area

“…For example, in figure 3. 1 The car (C) on road R0 at time t0 has four options: either to go to roads R1, R2, or R3 or to return to road R0. If none of these options is taken, the chosen road will be that having the shortest travel time when the car reaches it.…”

“…Worldwide rapid urbanisation is leading to an everincreasing number of vehicles on the road, particularly in developing countries [1]. This increasing number of vehicles in circulation is not always matched by an abyssal growth in terms of urban road infrastructures, resulting in enormous traffic jams in cities such as Lagos, Cairo, New Delhi, etc.…”