Congestion-Preventing Routing and Charging Scheduling Mechanism for Electric Vehicles in Dense Urban Areas

Abstract

Traffic congestion in metropolitan areas all over the world has become a critical issue that governments must
deal with effectively. Traffic congestion during rush hours causes vehicle drivers to arrive late at their destinations,
resulting in significant economic losses. Although researchers have proposed solutions to the traffic congestion
problem, little research work has presented a joint route and charging planning strategy for electric vehicles
(EVs) that alleviates traffic congestion problems simultaneously. Accordingly, a congestion-preventing route and charging planning mechanism for EVs is proposed in this work to tackle the complicated route and charging optimization
problems of EVs. The route and charging planning proposed in this work analyzes the information provided
by EVs, the charging points, and road traffic information simultaneously, and mediates the traffic jamming
by means of a route and charging reservation mechanism. Possible occurrence of traffic congestion is detected
in advance and traffic regulation is carried out by allocating an elastic range to the traveling period for late-booking
EVs, to avoid moving during rush hours. EV owners are also encouraged to provide rideshare services for
late-booking EV users during rush hours. The simulation results reveal that the proposed work can satisfy the
preferred route and charging demands of EV users and alleviate traffic congestion effectively.