This paper proposes a model to find the optimal location of autonomous vehicle lanes in a transportation network consisting of both Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) and Human-Driven Vehicles (HDVs) while accounting for the roadway capacity variation. The main contribution of the model is considering a generalized definition of capacity as a function of AV proportion on a link and incorporating it into the network design problem. A bilevel optimization model is proposed with total travel time as the objective function to be minimized. At the upper-level problem, the optimal locations of AV lanes are determined, and at the lower level which is a multiclass equilibrium assignment, road users including both AVs and HDVs seek to minimize their individual travel times. It is shown that if capacity variation is ignored, the effect of AV lane deployment can be misleading. Since there will be a long transition period during which both AVs and HDVs will coexist in the network, this model can help the network managers to optimally reallocate the valuable road space and better understand the effects of AV lane deployment at the planning horizon as well as during the transition period. Employing this model as a planning tool presents how the proposed AV lane deployment plan could consider the AV market penetration growth during the transition period. Numerical analysis based on the Sioux Falls network is presented in two cases with and without variable capacity to illustrate the application of this model. At the 60 penetration rate of AVs, the improvement in total travel time was 3.85 with a fix capacity while this improvement was 9.88 with a variable capacity.
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