Effect of connected and autonomous vehicles on traffic flow at a bidirectional road.

The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of connected and autonomous vehicles (CAVs) on traffic flow under various parameters. For this purpose, we propose a mixed CAV and conventional vehicle (CV) model to investigate a bidirectional two-lane traffic flow under the periodic boundary condition. The traffic flux and the phase diagrams of the system in the ( ρ 1 , ρ 2 ) area are constructed in both cases: with and without CAVs. The overtaking frequency is also calculated. The simulation findings show that the traffic capacity is greatly enhanced with the increase in the CAV penetration ratio. Owing to the cooperative driving strategy, with the increase in penetration ratio of the CAV, the portion of smooth overtaking is boosted. Furthermore, it is found that the traffic throughput is positively correlated to the speed limit of the fast vehicle where the flux increases as V max − F increases. Also, even if there is a low rate of slow moving vehicles in the system, it will have an appreciable and a significant negative influence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]