Traffic Flow Simulation Analysis of Mixed Traffic Flow Involving CAVs and Human-Driven Vehicles in Urban Work Zones

With the acceleration of urbanization, developing public transportation is an important means to alleviate travel pressure and traffic congestion in cities. Work zones that occupy urban road resources affect normal vehicle operations, leading to reduced vehicle efficiency. Based on this, the paper conducts research on traffic flow modeling and simulation analysis for work zones in a vehicle-road coordination environment. Based on the Gipps model and the SCAT model, optimizations and improvements were made to the following and lane-changing rules for three types of vehicles: human-driven vehicles (HVs), autonomous and connected vehicles (CAVs), and buses. Using cellular automata theory, it constructs a running model suitable for mixed traffic flow vehicles in work zones. MATLAB software is utilized to simulate the operation process of vehicles under work zone scenarios, analyzing changes in traffic flow from two directions: road geometric conditions (speed limits) and traffic flow states (volume, vehicle type ratios, etc.). The study analyzes the impact of vehicle motion behavior on mixed traffic flow under different road scenarios, and examines the effect of work zones on time-space diagrams. It concludes that, at the same density, the higher the proportion of CAVs, the lower the probability of congestion. When the traffic flow is in a free-flow state, the speeds of vehicles under different speed limit conditions are not the same. When the traffic density is around 45 veh/km, the traffic volume reaches its maximum. At the same density, the higher the proportion of CAVs, the greater the overall traffic flow speed and the higher the capacity of the road section.This research provides support for the improvement of theories related to traffic flow operations in work zones under a vehicle-road coordination environment.