Impacts of vehicle-to-infrastructure communication on traffic flows with mixed connected vehicles and human-driven vehicles

This paper explored the impacts of vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication on the mixed traffic flow consisting of connected vehicles (CVs) and human-driven vehicles (HVs). We developed a cellular automaton model for mixed flow at the signalized intersection. In addition to considering the motion characteristics of CVs and the influence of HVs on the motion behavior of CVs, the model also considered the influence of signal lights. CVs determine their velocities via V2I communication in order to pass the signal light with less delay and avoid stopping. Through simulations, we found that the presence, frequency and range of V2I communication all make a difference in the mixed flow. Also, 1-Hz communication reduces the number of vehicles within 300 m before the red light from 36 to 26, and the 10-Hz communication reduces one more; 1-Hz communication increases the number of accelerations, but when the frequency increases to 10 Hz, the number of accelerations decreases to the same value as without V2I communication, but the value of number of accelerations increases monotonously with the frequency; traffic delay decreases and capacity increases as the frequency increases. However, as the communication range increases, except that the number of accelerations first decreases and then increases, other traffic characteristics remain unchanged. The number of accelerations reaches a minimum at about 500 m.