Journal of Cleaner Production 276 (2020) 124198

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Cleaner Production

j o u r n a l h o m e p a g e : w w w . e l s e v i e r . c o m / lo c a t e / j c l e p r o

Optimal lane expansion model for a battery electric vehicle transportation

network considering range anxiety and demand uncertainty

a a b, * a
Kai Cheng , Yajie Zou , Xu Xin , Shuaiyu Gong
a Key Laboratory of Road and Traffic Engineering, Ministry of Education, Tongji University, 201804, Shanghai, PR China
b School of Economics and Management, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, PR China

article info abstract

Article history: This paper investigates a novel design problem involving an optimal government lane expansion scheme for a battery electric
Received 29 June 2020 vehicle (BEV) transportation network. A lane expansion model is established considering the BEV charging time, driver range
Received in revised form anxiety and uncertain transportation demand. This model aims to minimize the total travel time (i.e., sum of the driving time
24 August 2020
and charging time) of all drivers in the transportation network and optimize the lane expansion scheme (i.e., the number and
Accepted 8 September 2020
location of extended lanes in the network) under the established investment ceiling. To address demand uncertainty, an
Available online 15 September 2020
improved adjustable robust optimization method is further proposed to relax the model by introducing two control parameters.
Handling editor: Zhifu Mi Based on the framework of the active set algorithm, a local optimal solution algorithm is designed to effectively solve the
abovementioned model. Column generation is embedded in the above algorithm to avoid path enumeration. Sensitivity
Keywords: analyses are conducted for different control parameters and government investment scales. The results show that the model
Battery electric vehicle (BEV) and algorithm we proposed can provide a theoretical basis for the government to improve the traf fic efficiency of the
Network design transportation network and achieve the goal of sustainable transport.
Demand uncertainty
User equilibrium
Robust optimization
Column generation
© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
With the increase in people’s awareness of environmental protection,
electric vehicles (EVs) have gradually appeared in urban transportation
networks (Gardner et al., 2013). In China, the number of battery electric
vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) increased from
1430 in 2010 to 579,000 in 2017 (Zuo et al., 2019). EVs are characterized by
zero green-house gas emissions, low noise, and high energy conversion rates.
Therefore, promoting the use of both BEVs and HEVs has become an
effective way for governments around the world to achieve sustainable
transport. In practice, the governments of China, the US, and Japan have
already provided various subsidies for the purchase of EVs (Zhang et al.,
2019). As the number of BEVs continues growing, the transportation network
design
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: 1831414@tongji.edu.cn (K. Cheng), yajiezou@hotmail.com
(Y. Zou), xinxu@tongji.edu.cn (X. Xin), 1750683@tongji.edu.cn (S. Gong).
problem (NDP) under this new background has become a serious challenge
facing governments.
In this study, we model a BEV-NDP with special consideration of two
major challenges in the BEV transportation network. One microlevel
challenge associated with BEVs is the difficulty in calcu-lating the travel time
for each traveler. In practice, the charging time of a BEV is much longer than
the time required to refill a petrol vehicle and is thus a factor that cannot be
ignored (Sweda et al., 2017). Therefore, the travel time of a BEV will include
both travel time and charging time. Moreover, a phenomenon called range
anxiety signif-icantly affects the behavior of the BEV driver. Range anxiety
describes the concerns of drivers about running out of energy before reaching
their destinations (or the next charging station) (Guo et al., 2018; Yu et al.,
2011). Rauh et al. (2017) pointed out that range anxiety refers to the fear of
running out of energy and has been found to be nega-tively related to the
efficient usage of BEV driving range resources. Nilsson (2014) proved the
existence of range anxiety. In recent years, some scholars have also begun to
consider measuring range anxiety (Birrell et al., 2014) and alleviating range
anxiety (Luettringhaus and Nilsson, 2012). Rauh et al. (2017) pointed out that
the theoretical

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.124198
0959-6526/© 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
K. Cheng, Y. Zou, X. Xin et al.
basis for range anxiety has its origins in pressure theory, which was proposed
by Lazarus and Folkman (1984). If there is anxiety related to the energy
storage of BEVs, drivers (network users) will charge longer to ensure a
sufficient battery power margin while traveling. Thus, a user will
comprehensively consider the driving time, the charging time and even the
level of anxiety to choose his/her travel route.
Another macrolevel challenge is related to the uncertain trans-portation
demand. Skamris and Flyvbjerg (1996) noted that forecasts of the
transportation demand can differ from the actual demand by 20%~ 60%. This
uncertain demand directly affects the calculation of link capacity in the travel
network. Kraus (1982) qualified the optimal highway capacity under the
uncertainty of demand. The results showed that this optimal capacity
increased by 3%~12% compared to the scenario without considering
uncertainty. A similar conclusion was also reported by d’Ouville and
McDonald (1990). Moreover, the essence of an NDP is to change the link
capacities in a network and optimize the performance of the network (e.g.,
total travel time and total carbon emissions). Thus, the uncertain demand in
an NDP will undoubtedly affect the results of optimization and should be
taken into consideration by the government.
Therefore, the BEV-NDP faced by the government involves both
microlevel and macrolevel factors that are interconnected and constitute a
complex decision-making problem. On the one hand, the government must
consider the characteristics of individual traveler behaviors; on the other
hand, the uncertainty of the overall travel demand in the network can not be
ignored (as shown in Fig. 1).
In this paper, we aim to fill the abovementioned research problem in the
BEV-NDP field by answering the following research questions:
(1) Considering the new characteristics (i.e., traveling time calculation,
range anxiety) of BEVs, how does the govern-ment expand the lanes
in the BEV transportation network to reduce the total travel time?
(2) In the context of travel demand uncertainty, can the lane expansion
scheme maintain stability? If it is unstable, what is the evolution
direction of the expansion scheme?
(3) How can an effective algorithm be designed to solve the
abovementioned optimization problem?
Fig. 1. The logical framework for the research problem.
2
Journal of Cleaner Production 276 (2020) 124198
This paper aims to establish a network design model and design matching
algorithm so that the government can reasonably complete lane expansion to
reduce the total travel time. Specifically, we first construct a user equilibrium
(UE) model for the BEV transportation network according to the theory
proposed by He et al. (2014). The above UE model can be equivalently
transformed into two comple-mentary slack conditions according to the
Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) condition. Then, we use these complementary
conditions as the constraints of the network design model to describe the
travel behavior of the users. Next, we propose an improved adjustable robust
optimization method to consider the demand uncertainty in the model by
introducing two control parameters. Finally, the effects of different control
parameters and government investment ceilings are investigated to observe
the evolution of government policy under varying uncertainty demands and
investment scales.
We make two main contributions with this paper. First, based on the
behavior of BEV drivers and the demand uncertainty, a discrete network
design problem (DNDP) is expanded and dis-cussed. Second, we use the
active set algorithm (ASA) framework to design an efficient algorithm to
solve the abovementioned model.
In the remainder of this paper, Section 2 reviews the literature related to
NDP and EV routing. Section 3 explains the notations and basic assumptions
used. Section 4 establishes the model for the abovementioned problem.
Section 5 presents the design of an efficient solution algorithm based on the
ASA framework. Numer-ical experiments are conducted in Section 6. Finally,
Section 7 concludes the paper and discusses future research directions.
2. Literature review
The problem addressed in this paper is a complex decision problem
involving a transportation network design considering both the BEV driver
characteristics and an uncertain demand factor. In this section, we provide an
overview of the studies on the NDP (macrolevel) and EV routing problem
(microlevel).
The NDP has been studied in many settings. Here, we restrict our
attention to papers that are closely related to ours. Beckmann et al. (1956)
pioneered the related UE and NDP theories. Systematic re-views of the NDP
in different time periods were reported by Bell and
K. Cheng, Y. Zou, X. Xin et al.
Iida (1997) and Guihaire and Hao (2008). According to the above studies, the
core of the NDP lies in describing the behavior of network users. Only by
knowing the preferences of users can the network be designed in a targeted
manner and achieve the goals of decision makers (i.e., governments). In
recent years, the types of transportation systems based on the NDP and user
preferences have gradually evolved. For example, the bike sharing NDP (Wu
et al., 2020), ferry NDP (Bell et al., 2019), railway rapid transit NDP (Canca
et al., 2019) and even express shipment NDP (Perez et al., 2018) have been
studied. In regard to the literature related to the NDPs for EVs or BEVs, most
studies focused on the locations of charging stations. For example, Xie et al.
(2018) considered the planning of a fast-charging infrastructure between cities
for BEVs. The authors established a multistage chance-constrained stochastic
model to optimize the number and location of BEV charging stations. Huang
et al. (2016) proposed two optimization models for two different charging
modes (namely, fast charging and slow charging). The authors discussed the
optimal locations to construct charging stations at the lowest cost and reduce
the range anxiety of EV drivers. Iliopoulou and Kepaptsoglou (2019) investi-
gated a combined transit route network design and charging infra-structure
location problem and designed a bilevel programming model. The upper-level
model was used to select the optimal bus route, and the lower-level model
determined the location of wireless charging infrastructure components. To
the best of our knowledge, few studies have considered the NDP in the field
of the BEV network involving the charging time and range anxiety factors.
Only He et al. (2014), Xu et al. (2017) and Liu and Song (2018) modeled the
behavior of BEV users. Chen et al. (2016) considered the NDP of wireless
charging lanes. These studies can provide the theoretical basis for our paper.
Another stream of the literature is related to the EV routing problem. The
EV routing problem evolved from the vehicle routing problem (VRP). Since
its introduction by Dantzig and Ramser (1959), the VRP has been widely
studied. The VRP focuses on travel route planning for an EV fleet, and some
special characteristics of EVs are also considered. Emerging research
directions and state-of-the-art technology that has been developed in recent
years were discussed by Pelletier et al. (2016) and Schiffer et al. (2019).
Specifically, Keskin and Çatay (2016) established a VRP with a time window
(VRPTW) model considering partial recharge. The model fully considers the
characteristics of EVs that can be partially charged and provides a solution for
the path planning of EV fleets to minimize the total operation costs. Bahrami
et al. (2020) considered the travel charac-teristics of HEVs that can switch
between electric energy and fuel and established a VRP model with power
management constraints. To solve the abovementioned model, the authors
presented an exact branch-and-price heuristic algorithm. When considering
optimiza-tion goals in addition to the cost, Wang et al. (2018) proposed a
multiobjective model to optimize three travel cost components (namely, the
travel time, energy consumption and charging costs). Other typical studies of
EV characteristics have considered uncertain energy consumption
characteristics (Pelletier et al., 2019), nonlinear charging function
characteristics (Montoya et al., 2017), and time-varying traffic congestion
characteristics (Xiao and Konak, 2016). Overall, solving the EV routing
problem can provide an in-depth analysis of the microcharacteristics of BEVs.
Scholars have mainly focused on how to rationally establish the scheduling
scheme for a EV fleet and how to schedule EVs to adapt to the transportation
network, with little attention given to the expansion or adjustment of the
transportation network.
In this study, we are, to the best of our knowledge, the first to address the
abovementioned research questions simultaneously in an NDP. One can see
that there are only few studies considering the characteristics of BEV in the
existing research of NDP. Most of the researches in macro-level are devoted
to discussing transportation
3
Journal of Cleaner Production 276 (2020) 124198
network equilibrium or construction of charging facilities. The micro-level
research is mainly related to the scheduling, operation man-agement of
EVs/BEVs and the psychological characteristics of EV drivers. Overall, there
is still a lack of theoretical research on the system design level (i.e., transport
network design level) for BEV, let alone the transportation network
optimization problem with un-certain demand factor. At the same time, most
of the algorithms developed for NDP are based on the framework of
evolutionary al-gorithms (e.g., genetic algorithm, simulated annealing). When
the network scale becomes larger, the time and computational complexity
required to solve the NDP will increase significantly. This paper fills the
abovementioned research gaps by establishing a BEV transport network lane
expansion model and matching algorithm considering the characteristics of
BEV drivers (i.e., charging time and range anxiety) and an uncertain demand
factor.
3. Problem description
3.1. Basic considerations and notations
Since the goal of this paper is to determine the optimal lane expansion
scheme considering the specific characteristics of BEV driver behavior and
the uncertainty demand, a programming model is established based on the UE
theory. To simplify the problem and facilitate modeling, the basic
considerations (or as-sumptions) are listed below.
(1) User transport route choice behavior: The users of the BEV
transportation network freely decide their travel routes in the network
according to the minimum travel time (i.e., the sum of the driving time
and charging time). In other words, the traffic flow distribution in the
BEV transportation network follows the UE principle (same
assumption as He et al. (2014)).
(2) Charging behavior: The users can charge their BEV at a charging
station. The battery charge increases linearly with the charging time.
The battery energy storage amount for BEV charging should allow
users to complete the trip. Because of range anx-iety, it is assumed that
the user will guarantee that the battery capacity of the BEV is not less
than a constant (related to the origin and destination of a trip) at any
time. Different types of charging stations have different charging
speeds. It is assumed that there is only one type of charging station at a
transport node and that the number of chargers at a charging station is
sufficient (same assumption as He et al. (2014)).
(3) Transport demand uncertainty: The transportation demand between
each OeD pair is uncertain. It is assumed that the transportation
demand of OeD pair w is uniformly distributed (same assumption as
Lo et al. (2013) and Jiang et al. (2020)).
(4) Link performance function: The driving time in the urban transport
network is set based on the Bureau of Public Roads (BPR) function
and satisfies the law of additivity (same assumption as He et al. (2020),
Liu and Song (2018) and Liu and Song (2018)).
(5) Battery energy consumption: All BEVs have the same maximum
battery capacity. Each BEV has the same initial state of charge (i.e.,
the energy stored in the battery before the trip begins). The
consumption of energy by the battery is only related to the distance
traveled (same assumption as He et al. (2014)).
(6) Government decision-making behavior: The government can use
limited funds to expand the link capacity in trans-portation networks.
We do not consider the case in which the government can build new
links. For each link, it is assumed that the government can only add up
to three lanes. Fig. 2 shows the process for the government to add two
more lanes to a two-lane link.
K. Cheng, Y. Zou, X. Xin et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 276 (2020) 124198

For convenience, the notations commonly used in this paper are listed
g2
below. va
ta va; u tfree 1 g (1)

1 unit
ða;kÞ ¼a " þ ca þ ca uða;1Þ þ 2uða;2Þ ! #
Sets
N 3.3. Definition of network equilibrium
C Set of nodes with charging stations
NC Set of nodes without charging stations
N Set of nodes, where N ¼ NC∪NC It is assumed that all vehicles in the transportation network are BEVs. We
A Set of links can also consider the situation in which different types of vehicles exist in the
W Set of OeD (origin-destination) pairs of traffic flows
b Set of usable paths (see Definition 1 in Subsection 3.2) for network by expanding this network into multiple subtransport networks and
Pw
OeD pair w setting different link perfor-mance functions for different types of vehicles. In
AðpÞ Set of links along path p addition, we assume that there are several charging stations in the BEV trans-
Parameters portation network. Network users can choose whether to use the charging
a or ði; jÞ Link a ¼ ði; jÞ station for charging during the trip according to the bat-tery energy level of
w or ðr; sÞ OeD pair w ¼ ðr; sÞ
the BEV. Based on the above assumptions, we can obtain the following
p Path p
oðwÞ Origin of OeD pair w definitions.
dw The path-link incidence, which equals 1 if path p2P
b
ap consists of link a and 0 otherwise w Definition 1 (Useable path). A path is useable if and only if the user can
Decision Variables complete the travel on the path with or without charging and can reserve
va Traffic flow on link a (unit: vehicle/h) enough battery energy for the BEV to cope with range anxiety when
w
f Traffic flow on usable path p for OeD pair w (unit: vehicle/h)
u
p traveling.
ða;1Þ ð0 1Þ variable; 1 when adding a lane for link a and 0 otherwise The above definition indicates that the energy consumption between any
u
ða;2Þ ð0 1Þ variable; 1 when adding two lanes for link a and 0 otherwise two nodes with charging stations should allow the BEV to have enough
power remaining to complete the trip (see Assumption (2)). Fig. 3 shows a
schematic diagram of a BEV transportation network.
3.2. Formulation of the BEV transportation network
As shown in Fig. 3, there are 3 transport paths for the OeD pair ð1; 4Þ,
Network formulation. Let G :¼ ðN; AÞ denote a BEV trans-portation including Path A: 1-2-4, Path B: 1e4 and Path C: 1-3-4. Charging stations are
network. Here, N represents the set of nodes, where N : ¼ NC∪NC. NC located only at Node 2 and Node 3. It is assumed that the battery size of a
represents the set of nodes with charging stations, and BEV is 15 kW∙h and that the energy consumption rate is 1 kW∙h/km. Without
NC represents the set of nodes without charging stations. Let A represent the considering range anxiety, a fully charged BEV can complete the trip from
set of links, the elements of which are denoted as a or ði; jÞ. Node 1 to Node 4 through Path A or Path C. To complicate the situation,
when considering range anxiety, if the driver’s comfortable range (i.e., lower
bound of the electric energy reserve) is 1 kW,h, Path A will become unusable.
Link performance function. When the traffic volume on link a (i.e., va)
Based on the defi-nition of a useable path, we define the network UE for the
increases, the travel time of vehicles on this link will also gradually increase
BEV transportation network as shown below.
(called the congestion effect). Thus, the perfor-mance function on link a is set
as a strictly monotonically increasing function. In this study, we use the BPR
function, which is the same approach as that of He et al. (2014) and He et al. Definition 2 (Network UE state). In the network UE state, all the
free utilized paths are useable, and the travel times of all the utilized paths for one
(2020), as shown in Equation (1). In the equation, ta represents the free-
OeD pair are the same; these times are less than or equal to that for any
flow travel time; g1 and g2 are two positive parameters, which are unutilized useable paths corresponding to the same OeD pair (He et al.,
determined by the actual situation of the transportation network; va represents 2014).
the traffic flow volume on link a; ca repre-sents the initial transportation We then establish a transport network equilibrium model (i.e., [UE]
unit model) that conforms to Definition 1 and Definition 2 according to the
capacity of link a; c a represents the capacity that can be increased by classic Beckmann model (Beckmann et al.,1956) and the theory proposed by
expanding one lane for link a; and uða;1Þ and uða;2Þ are two ð0 1Þ variables He et al. (2014). Note that we do not consider the un-certain demand in this
that indicate the extent to which the government can expand link a. When w
stage. In the [UE] model, c p represents the minimal charging time that
uða;kÞ is set to 1, k new lanes are added for link a. Note that in this paper we allows a BEV to travel along a useable path
only consider two cases of k ¼ 1 and k ¼ 2. 2
b

(see Definition 1 for details) p Pw considering both the energy

b
consumption and range anxiety; Pw denotes the useable path set for
w
w2W; d ap is the path-link indicator variable, which equals 1 if useable

Fig. 2. The process for the government to add 2 lanes to a link.

 w
path p2Pw consists of link a and 0 otherwise; fp represents the traffic
on useable path p2Pw; and gw represents the transportation
b
volume
demand of OeD pair w. b
[UE]:
 v X X
X a p w
w w
t z dz þ w2W
0

min : c f
ðv;fÞ a2A ð að Þ 2P p p (2)

b
4
K. Cheng, Y. Zou, X. Xin et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 276 (2020) 124198
P
P Pw p w

w w w w )
¼ w2W fp dap ; ca; fp ¼ gw; cw; fp 0; cw; p and a lane
p2P 2P
expansion scheme u~ u~ a k ; the equilibrium conditions (3)~(8) are
b Þ
b ¼ð ð ;Þ *
*
equivalent to finding a set ðv ; f Þ2P that satisfies the following
variational inequality (VI).
[UE-VI]:
Fig. 3.Schematic diagram of a BEV transportation network. X * ~
v;
ta a uða;kÞ

a2A;k¼1;2

w w w*
pf wdw
*
s:t: va ¼ X Xw
b
ca2A (3) va va þ X cp fp fp 0; cðv; fÞ2P
p ap p2P w ;w2W

w2W 2P

w b * ~u *
fp ¼ gw
a2A;k 1;2
cw2W (4) Proof. Set v ¼ 0, f ¼ 0, we have taðva; a;k
ð Þ
Þva þ
b P ¼
P¼

p
X
w
2P w w* * * P *
c p fp 0. Set v ¼ 2v , f ¼ 2f , we have a2A;k 1;2 taðva;
p2P w ;w2W P P
¼
*
va 0 ca2A (5) u~ k v* cwf w* 0. Thus, ta v ; u~ ak v*
b
ða; Þ Þ aþ p p a2A;k 1;2 ða ð; Þ
Þaþ
;w2W
b w P p2Pw
w w*
P P w w
w
w f d
fp 0 cp2Pw; w2W (6) cp fp b¼ 0. Substituting va ¼ w2W p ap into the
p2P w ;w2W p2Pw
P P¼
where v va and f ¼ ð fp . b w* ba * a;k ap
"
¼ð
Þ Þ f p a
u~

Þ
above formula, we have t v; d

The difference between the [UE] model and the Beckmann p2Pw ;w2W a2A;k 1;2 ð ð Þ þ
model is that the [UE] model only considersuseable paths in the b
ei , v
w
network. In the above equation set, Equation (2) is the objective c # 0. Let f f* v*
e
i where ei denotes the n-
function. Constraints (3)~(6) constitute basic network flow con- p ¼ ¼ þ ¼ þ
th
dimensional vector with 1 in the i location and 0 otherwise; we
straints. Recall that we assume that the range anxiety of BEV drivers
is a constant related to OeD pair w. Therefore, for a specific path " * ~ w
w
between an OeD pair, the minimum charging time cp can be have a2A p ;k 1;2 taðva; u
ða;kÞ Þþ cp # 0. Thus, the
p2P w ;w2W P
determined. P ð Þ ¼
conditions (3)~(8) are equivalent to the [UE-VI]. Q. E. D.

Proposition 1. The UE state of the BEV transportation network exists optimal b

and the link flows are unique.
4. Model establishment
Proof. Given a network expansion plan u ¼ ðuða;kÞÞ, we form the
Lagrangian of model [UE] as L ðf; mÞ ¼ t½vðfÞ cf þ The model establishment process consists of two parts. We first
mw w
!
establish the network design (lane expansion) model (in Section
w2W qw fp . The first-order conditions include 4.1). Then, we further incorporate uncertain demand factors into
2P
P p
P
w the model framework via an improved adjustable robust optimi-
f f;m
fpw vL ðw;mÞ ¼ 0, vL ðw Þ 0 and vL ðf;mÞ ¼ 0. Then, we have the
vuw zation method (in Section 4.2).
v p bp

f vf

following optimal conditions:

4.1. Network design model considering UE in a BEV transportation

(3) ~ (6)
network

4 v; w 5 b In this section, we first establish a transport network design

fp 2
w ta a uða;kÞ þ cpw m 3 ¼0 cp 2 Pw ; w2W model ([ND] model) that considers only the travel behavior of BEV
2 p k
X
a Að Þ; ¼1;2 drivers. According to Proposition 1, we introduce the KKT condi-
(7) tion of the [UE] model into the [ND] model. In the [ND] model, ha represents
the cost of adding an additional lane to link a, and I
w w represents the government budget ceiling.
ta va; uða;kÞ þ cp m 0 cp 2 Pw; w2W (8) [ND]:
2 p k
X
a Að Þ;¼1;2 b min t
va
;u cwf w
w
where m is the multiplier associated with Constraint (4). v;f;u : a ða;kÞ va þ p p (9)
w2W
Obviously, these equations are equivalent to the relations given ð Þ a2A;k¼1;2
X XX
p2Pw

in Definition 2. This shows the existence of equilibrium. Note that it b

is assumed that the link performance function is strictly mono- s.t. (1), (3)~(8)
tonically increasing. Thus, the Hessian of the link performance X
a
functions is positive definite. Therefore, link flows are unique. Q. E. u þ 2u
ha ða;1Þ ða;2Þ I (10)
D. 2A

( w
Proposition 2. Define a set P :¼ ð…; va; …; fp ; …Þ va
5
K. Cheng, Y. Zou, X. Xin et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 276 (2020) 124198

individual OeD pairs in the network. Based on the above settings,

0 uða;kÞ 1 ca2A; k ¼ 1; 2
(11) we can obtain the probability that the sum of the uncertain demand parameters
under given control parameter F is as shown in
uða;kÞ 1 uða;kÞ ¼ 0 ca 2 A; k ¼ 1; 2 (12) Constraint (17) (also see in Jiang et al. (2020)). Proofs for the above
probability were given by Bertsimas and Sim (2004) and Lugannani and Rice
where u ¼ ðuða;kÞÞ. (1980).
In the above equation set, Equation (9) is the objective function, which
PFR j W j!
minimizes the total travel time of the BEV network. The first term represents PrF Pr
¼
r
w F ¼
8 jWj!
j 0 ð 1Þ j j ðF jÞjWj; F<jWj
the total BEV driving time, and the second term represents the total BEV <
F Wj
( ) > 1

X >1;
charging time. Constraint (10) indicates that government investment cannot w2W >
>
¼
exceed the corresponding in-vestment ceiling. Constraints (11) and (12) are ð0
1Þ constraints for the variable uða;kÞ.
: (17)
where P:R represents the round down function.
4.2. Robust optimization method for an uncertain demand Finally, the BEV network design model considering an uncertain demand
can be expressed as the [NE-UD] model.
[NE-UD]:
Now, we discuss the demand uncertainty further. As one of the most
X XX
effective methods for dealing with such factors, the robust optimization method min t v ;u w w
c f
has been widely used by scholars in recent years (see Liu et al. (2017), Jiang et ð
v;f;u;r
Þ
: a2A;k¼1;2
a a ða;kÞ
v þ
a
w2W
p2Pw
p p (18)
al. (2020) and Eshtehadi et al. (2017) for examples). Robust optimization is a
field of optimization theory that deals with optimization problems in which a
b
certain measure of robustness is sought against uncertainty that can be s.t. (1), (3), (5)~(8), (10)~(16)
represented as deterministic variability in the value of the pa-rameters of the
problem itself and/or its solution. The core objective of robust optimization is
to find a feasible solution that satisfies all possible transportation demands and
can yield the optimal objective value. According to Assumption (3) in Section
5. Solution methodology

3.1, we assume that the transportation demand of OeD pair w obeys a
base ub base ub
uniform distribution, i.e., gw Uðgw ; gw Þ, where gw and gw
represent the lower and upper bounds of the distribution, respectively. Then,
for every OeD pair w, we split the trans-portation demand g w into two parts,
base w w ub base
namely, gw ¼ gw þ rwgD , where gD ¼ gw gw . rw Uð0; 1Þ is
called the demand uncer-tainty parameter (Ben-Tal et al., 2004). We then
introduce the following constraints. Here, jWj denotes the number of OeD
pairs in the BEV transportation network; F2½0; jWj represents a con-trol
parameter used to reduce conservatism (i.e., concerns about congestion,
environmental pollution, oil prices), as proposed by Bertsimas and Sim (2004).
A larger F means that the overall un-certainty of demand in the BEV
transportation network is greater. x2½0; 1 is a parameter that reflects how far a
specific rw is from
Since model [NE-UD] has several complementary constraints (i.e.,
Constraints (7)~(8)), it belongs to a class of mathematical programming with
equilibrium conditions (MPEC). Among the classes of optimization problems,
MPEC is more difficult to solve (Lawphongpanich and Yin, 2010). MPEC is a
well-recognized nonlinear complementarity problem (NCP), and the optimal
so-lution cannot be found at the application level. This is because the existing
linearization methods for complementarity conditions will introduce a large
number of binary variables, making the combination size increase
dramatically. When the scale of the network gradually increases, it typically
requires a time-consuming branch-and-bound scheme to search for a globally
optimal solution. To effectively solve the above model, we intro-duced ASA
with the embedded column generation algorithm (CGA) to find the local
optimal solution by solving a sequence of restricted problems. Column
generation can avoid a large number of enumerations in the calculation
process, saving calculation

the average of r ¼ ðrwÞ, i.e., EðrÞ.

X
w base w (13) time and storage space; ASA shows excellent calculation perfor-mance in
fp ¼ gw þ rwgD cw2W solving medium- and large-scale network design problems (see He et al.
b

p2P w (2014), Liu and Song (2018) and Xu et al.

(2017) for examples).
X (14)
rw F
w2W
5.1. Solution procedure for network equilibrium

x rw F=jWj x cw2W (15) The [UE] model is a classical convex mathematical program with linear
jWj constraints, and we can solve it easily by using a commercial solver (e.g.,
r2 0; 1 (16)
CONOPT; see Drud (1995)). In order to facilitate model solving, we further
transform the [UE-VI] model (note that it is equivalent to [UE] model) into
½

In the above equation set, Constraint (14) requires the sum of the
uncertain demand parameter values rw to be less than or equal to the value of
the control parameter F. Constraint (15) requires the distance between the
uncertain demand parameter rw (for any OeD pair w) and EðrÞ to not exceed
x. Constraint (16) requires all the components in vector r to be between 0 and
1. The parameter F is used to indicate the overall uncertainty of the demand
of the BEV network, and the parameter x indicates the uncertainty of
the following nonlinear program-ming problem ([UE-NLP] for short) via the
gap function technique provided by Aghassi et al. (2006). If the objective
* * *
value of the [UE-NLP] model equals 0, the calculated traffic flow ðv ; f ; r ;
* * T
ε ; m Þ will meet the UE condition defined by Definitions 1 and 2. Note
that we repeat some constraints for the completeness of the model.
[UE-NLP]:

6
K. Cheng, Y. Zou, X. Xin et al.
X X X
ð Þ¼ p w
w w
min t ;u c f
v;f;r;ε;m : a va ða;kÞ
v þ
a p p
Þ
ð a2A p ;k 1;2 w2W 2P
X
w
base w w
gw þ rwgD m b
2W
X
X p w
w w
s:t: va ¼ w2W
fp dap ca2A
2b

P
 Journal of Cleaner Production 276 (2020) 124198

large constant. M and K are two other constants that are sufficiently
large.
[CGA]:
X X w w
(19) min t ~v ; u x
w ar bF
a þ þ
ðX;r;FÞ : a2A;k 1;2 a a ða;kÞ i2N ii i i (29)
¼

(20)
s:t: DXw ¼ Dw (30)
X w w w w
p w Bj Bi þ daq Fj ¼ fa cði; jÞ ¼ a2A a2A (31)
w base w
B daq M1 x m c i; j (32)

fp ¼ gw þ rwgD cw2W (21)

b w
i
w w w a
þ w
w ð Þ¼
2P

va 0 ca2A (22) K1 xa fa K 1 xa ca2A (33)

b F
fp 0 cp2P w; w2W (23) 0 iw pi ci2N (34)
w w

v
ε tava; u ca2A (24) 0 Bi Bmax ci2N (35)
a 2 p k ða;kÞ
X
a Að Þ;¼1;2
Bw ¼B
o ðwÞ 0 (36)
v w w w w
εa dap þ mw0 0 cwpw0 p 1 cp cp 2 Pw; w2W x 1 x 0 ca2A (37)
¼
X X @ p
X
A b a a
0
a2A 2P
w

w 2W

w
b (25) 0 xa 1 ca2A (38)
rw F (26) F
w

2W rw i ci2N (39)
X P
w i total

x rw F=jWj x cw2W (27) P max p (40)

¼ Þ
total i2N ð i

0 rw 1 cw2W (28)
w w
v w ri 1 ri ¼0 ci2N (41)
where ε ¼ ðεaÞ and m ¼ ðm Þ are the multipliers associated with
w0 w
Constraints (20) and (21) and cwp p is the path-path incidence, 0 ri 1 ci2N (42)
which equals 1 if p p p 2Pw0 ; p 2Pw . w w w
¼ ð fl Þ where w x ;r r and F F .
In addition, [UE-NLP] is X ¼ðaÞ ¼ði Þ ¼ði Þ
path- ow based, which requires path

b b

enumeration beforehand. To avoid the enumeration of useable In the above equation set, Equation (29) is the objective function
paths in the [UE-NLP] model, based on the concept of the CGA, we and yields the shortest travel time for a useable path p associated
can apply a shortest useable path generation model [CGA] according with OeD pair w. Constraint (30) reflects the relationship between
to the technique provided by Chen et al. (2016). For each OeD pair the decision variable Xw and the node-link incidence matrix D such
w, the [CGA] model is proposed as shown below. Some new pa- that the origin of the newly generated path is oðwÞ and the desti-
w
rameters and variables are further introduced. Specifically, xa is a nation is dðwÞ. Constraint (31) requires continuity for BEV battery
ð0 e power level changes. The power of BEV at the destination of link a is
1Þ variable that is equal to 1 when O D pair w contains link a

and 0 otherwise; ai and bi are both positive parameters that equal to the power at the origin of link a minus the energy con-
represent the operating time at charging station i and charging sumption on link a. Constraint (32) requires the charge at node i to
w
time per unit battery amount; ri 2f0; 1g denotes whether BEVs meet the needs for the next BEV journey. The charge on link a2Pw
charge at node i or not; D represents the node-link incidence ma- m
w
any time. Constraint (33) gives the

w will not be lower than at w w bw

f
trix of the BEV transportation network; Bi denotes the state of relationship between xa and a to satisfy the definition of fa .
w
charge at node i after charging; F represents the electricity Constraint (34) requires that the charge amount at node i cannot
i

charging amount at node i; and Dw is a vector with a length of jNj. exceed pi. Constraint (35) states that the battery energy reserve of a
The vector consists of two-nonzero components; one has a value of BEV cannot exceed its upper limit Bmax. Constraint (36) gives the
1 and is associated with the origin of w (denoted as oðwÞ), and the initial charge of the BEV to satisfy Assumption (5) in Section 3.1. w

other has a value of 1 and is associated with the destination of w Constraints (37) and (38) require decision variable xa to be binary.
w w
(denoted as dðwÞ). Let Bmax and B0 be the BEV battery size and Constraint (39) gives the relationship between ri and Fi . More-
initial power level, respectively. q represents the power consump- over, if there is no charging station in the transportation network,
w
tion per kilometer; da denotes the length of link a; fa is a ð0 1Þ this constraint condition requires that the BEV cannot be charged.
w w
variable that equals 0 if and only if x is equal to 1; m is the lower Constraint (40) is used to calculate Ptotal, and it is equal to the
a
w
limit of BEV power due to range anxiety; and p denotes the upper i
largest of pi. Constraints (41) and (42) require decision variable r
i

bound of electricity that node i can provide. Notably, pi equals 0 if to be binary. The specific steps involved in solving for the UE state
there is no charging station at node i; otherwise, it is a sufficiently of the BEV transportation network are as follows.

7
K. Cheng, Y. Zou, X. Xin et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 276 (2020) 124198

l l
Step 0. Initialization. For every OeD pair w2 W, solve the Step 1. Set l ¼ 1, U YES ¼ ∅ and U NO ¼ fða; kÞ : a 2A; k ¼ 1;
b 1 1
[CGA] model with ~ ~a . Construct a set w bw 2g. Solve the [UE-NLP] model with ðU YES; U NOÞ according to
v ¼ ðv Þ ¼ 0 P ¼ fp g
w the [CGA] model and go to Step 2.
associated with X. Calculate c p associated with bpw.
b l l l T
Step 1. Solve the [UE-NLP] model based on Pw and denote Step 2. Construct a set ðv ; u ; f Þ to solve the [NE-R]
l l l
w w model with ðU YES; U NOÞ. Solve the [NE-R] model again to obtain p and
the optimal solution set of this model as ðv~; m~ Þ, where m~ l
p~ a k , the multipliers associated with con-
is the multiplier associated with Constraint (21). ða;kÞ ð; Þ
l l
Step 2. Solve the [CGA] model for every OeD pair w2 W straints uða;kÞ ¼ 0 and uða;kÞ ¼ 1. Set Ttotal ¼ taðva ;
2k
and obtain a new usable path pw. If the objective value of P
P P w l w wl l l l a A ;l¼1;2
ða r w þb B wÞ u Þv þ P p P
the [CGA] model ~ b w ða;kÞ a w2W
w
, where v ¼ ðvaÞ, u ¼ ðuða;kÞÞ and
m~w
c p fp
a2Ataðv a; uða;k ÞÞxa þ i2N i i i i
2P
b

~ ~
for all OeD pairs, stop; in this case, ðv; m Þ is the UE state l wl
f ¼ ðfp Þ; then, go to Step 3.
that satisfies Definition 1 and Definition 2. Otherwise, go to Step
1. b
Step 3. Set 6 ¼ ∞. Let ð l; cmÞ to solve the following [KP]
model.
[KP]:
l
max : l pl m p~ (46)
Note that the [CGA] model is a classical mixed integer linear l;m l ða;kÞ ða;kÞ ða;kÞ ða;kÞ
ð Þ 2 2
l
programming model that can be easily solved by a commercial solver such as X X
CPLEX (CPLEX, 2008). As the number of useable paths in a network is ða;k ÞUNO ða;k ÞUYES
finite, the above procedure terminates in a finite number of steps (He et al., k 1 k 1
s:t: ha2 lða;kÞ ha2 mða;kÞ
2014). 2
l
2
l
X X
ða;k ÞUNO k ða;k ÞUYES
I h2 1 (47)
a
l
2

5.2. Solution procedure for the network design model

X
ða;k ÞUYES
l l
p l p~ m 6 (48)
In this section, we introduce the ASA proposed by Zhang et al. (2009) to
2 l ða;kÞ ða;kÞ 2l ða;kÞ ða;kÞ
solve the model. The basic objective of this algorithm is first to solve a X X
relaxed version ([NE-R] for short) of the [NE-UD] model and obtain ða;k ÞUNO ða;k ÞUYES
multipliers associated with the constraints that are related to the active sets. l 1 l
Then, a knapsack problem model ([KP] for short) is established to verify ða;kÞ ða;kÞ ¼ 0 ca 2 A; k ¼ 1; 2 (49)
whether the [NE-R] model reaches the local optimum. In addition, based on
the solution of the [KP] model, the active sets in the [NE-R] model can be m 1 m ¼0
updated. ða;kÞ ða;kÞ ca 2 A; k ¼ 1; 2 (50)
To implement the ASA, we first define two sets, namely, UYES :¼ fða; kÞ l
0 ða;kÞ 1 ca 2 A; k ¼ 1; 2 (51)
: uða;kÞ ¼ 1g andUNO : ¼ fða; kÞ : uða; kÞ ¼ 0g. For a specific lane
expansion scheme in the BEV transportation network, these two 0m
sets should be complete, i.e., UYES∩UNO ¼ ∅, and UYES∪ UNO ¼ A. The ða;kÞ 1 ca 2 A; k ¼ 1; 2 (52)
[NE-R] model is shown below. At this time, all links in the BEV
Here, lða;kÞ and mða;kÞ are two ð0 1Þ variables; l ¼ ðlða;kÞÞ and
transportation network will be expanded to different degrees ac-
cording to the link division of UYES and UNO. m ¼ ðmða;kÞÞ. If mða;kÞ ¼ 1, element ða; kÞ will be transferred
[NE-R]: from set UYES to set UNO, and lða;kÞ ¼ 1 represents the
opposite procedure.
X XX w w m p~l l pl
min t ;u w2W c f (43) If l ða;kÞ a;k l ða;kÞ a;k equals 0, stop, and
ðv;f;r;uÞ
:
a2A;k¼1;2
a va
ða;kÞ va þ p2P w p p
2 ð Þ 2 ð Þ
P P
ða;kÞ UYES ða;kÞ UNO

l l l T
ðv ; u ; f Þ is the local optimal solution; otherwise, go to Step 4.
b
s.t. (1), (3), (5)~(8), (10), (13)~(16)

u ¼1
ða;kÞ ca 2 UYES; k ¼ 1; 2 (44)
u ¼0
ða;kÞ ca 2 UNO; k ¼ 1; 2 (45)
Although the [NE-R] model is another MPEC (note that it still contains
complementary conditions, i.e., Constraints (7) and (8)), we can simply obtain
the optimal solution for this equilibrium state by solving the [UE-NLP]
model. The solution procedure of the ASA is shown below.
 l P
p~ m ,U U 0 a; k 2U: lNO -
Step 4. Set 6 pl l
¼ l ða;kÞ ða;kÞ
P
b l
b
bl b l a2U l
b
b
YES

a;k a;k NO NO NO a;k

l
a2U ð Þ ð Þ
¼ð Þ ð Þ

b
¼ 1g and UYES ¼ ðUYES fða;
¼ 1gÞ∪fða; kÞ 2UYES : mða;kÞ

l b l b b
k 2UYES : m a;k ¼ 1 ∪ a;k 2UNO : l a;k 1 . Go to Step
5. b b gÞ fð Þ b b ¼ g

Þ ð Þ ð Þ

8
K. Cheng, Y. Zou, X. Xin et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 276 (2020) 124198

(see Chen et al. (2016)) to set the upper and lower bounds of the uncertain
Step 5. Solve the [UE-NLP] model again with the BEV
demand, respectively. The control parameter F is set to increase from 0 to 90
l
transportation network expanded by u ¼ ðub ða;kÞÞ. If Ttotal < with a step size of 45, and the parameter x is set to 0, 0.5 and 1 in different
l scenarios. According to the different combinations of these two parameters, 9
b b

Ttotal , go to Step 6 because set ðUYES; UNOÞ leads to a

scenarios can be obtained. Note that when the parameter F is set to 0, the
decrease in total travel time in the BEV transportation network.
0 travel demand will not fluctuate with parameter x; thus, scenarios UD1, UD4
Otherwise, set 6 ¼ 6 þ k, where k > 0 is a suffi-ciently small
number, and go to Step 3. and UD7 are equivalent. Table 2 shows the optimal lane expansion schemes
and total travel time in different scenarios.
Step 6. Set lþ1 U , Ulþ1 U , and l l 1; then,
As shown in Table 2, some links should always be considered, e.g., links
4e5, 7e18 and 8e6. The link 4e5 lane expansion scheme is recommended in
U b nearly all scenarios, and the expansion of links 7e18 and 8e6 is suitable for
go to Step 2 . NO ¼ NO YES ¼ b YES ¼ þ
scenarios with a large degree of travel demand uncertainty. In addition,
expansions for links 1e3 and 22e21 are suitable for scenarios without demand
6. Numerical examples
fluctuations. The total travel time in different scenarios is shown in Fig. 6. As
the degree of the overall travel demand uncertainty (i.e., parameter F)
In this section, we present numerical examples to demonstrate the
increases, the total travel time also increases, but this change is relatively
proposed model and ASA. All the experimental procedures were run on a
limited. Compared with the scenarios without travel demand fluctuations, the
computer produced by Lenovo with an Intel CORE i5-7200U (3.1 GHz) CPU
total travel cost increases by approxi-mately 0.67%~1.95% when F is set to
and 12.0 GB of available RAM.
45 and by approximately 3.71% ~5.38% when F is set to 90. This result
shows that the degree of the overall travel demand uncertainty significantly
6.1. Basic scenario affects the total travel time in the area. When formulating a transportation
network design policy, the government must conduct scientific assessments
We first use the Sioux Falls network as the test network, and a numerical that fully consider the degree of fluctuation in the transportation demand.
experiment is performed with a fixed transport demand. This network contains
24 nodes, 76 links (see Fig. 4) and 90 O-D pair. The travel demand of each
OeD pair w, i.e., g w, is set based on 80% of the data in Table 8 of Chen et al.
(2016). A total of 5 charging stations are located, i.e., one Level 1 station at
Node 12, two Level 2 stations at Node 16 and Node 5, and two Level 3
stations at Node 15 and Node 11. 6.3. Sensitivity analysis of different investment scales
The distance of link a (i.e., d a) and the cost of expanding a lane for link a
are set according to He et al. (2014). The battery capacity of each BEV is set In this section, we use the NguyeneDupius network as the test network to
w explore the lane expansion problem at different gov-ernment investment
to 40 kW∙h. The energy consumption rate is 0.15 kW∙h/km. Parameter m is
scales. This network contains 13 nodes, 19 links and 10 OeD pairs (see Fig.
set to 0.1 kW,h for all OeD pairs w.
7). The OeD data are given in Table 3. In this transportation network, two
Other parameters include g1 ¼ 0:15, g2 ¼ 3, ai ¼ 0:3, bi ¼ 8
< 0:7; Level 1 Level 2 charging sta-tions are located at Node 6 and Node 11. The parameters
: 10; Level 2 , and B0 ¼ 0:25Bmax. 40; Level of the BPR function are shown in Table 4. The distance of link a (i.e., da) is
3 set
We apply a commercial solver called CONOPT to solve the [UE-NLP]
and [ND-R] models and CPLEX 12.4 to solve the [CGA] model. The running
time of the program is 182 minutes. Judging from the calculation time, the
proposed algorithm has certain applicability for solving actual-scale
problems. For the Proof of ASA convergence and performance verification,
please refer to Lawphongpanich and Yin (2010) and Chen et al. (2016). The
equilibrium traffic flow on each link is shown in Table 1. The optimal lane
expansion plan in-volves expanding one lane for link 1e3 and one lane for
link 22e21.
As shown in Table 1, the traffic volume on some links equals 0. The
reasons for the above phenomenon are complicated. Some links may have
long distances that can cause BEVs to run out of power, and others may cause
range anxiety for BEV drivers. Therefore, in the BEV transportation network,
the existence of some links is worthless. When planning the construction of
the BEV transportation network infrastructure, the government should
consider the construction of more charging stations near such links. Fig. 5
reflects the changes in the regional total travel time (including the driving
time and charging time) as the number of iterations increases. The ASA
terminates after the 7th iteration. The total travel time decreased from the
8 8
initial 1.44 10 min to 1.03 10 min, a total decrease of 28.54%. Additionally,
the average travel time per vehicle is reduced from 107.06 min to 76.58 min.

6.2. Sensitivity analysis of uncertain demand control parameters

In this section, we use 80% and 120% of the OeD demand data Fig. 4. Sioux Falls network (Source: He et al. (2020)).

9
K. Cheng, Y. Zou, X. Xin et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 276 (2020) 124198

Table 1
Equilibrium link flows.

Link Traffic Flow (vehicles/h) Link Traffic Flow (vehicles/h) Link Traffic Flow (vehicles/h)
1e2 186.67 10e11 0.00 17e16 224.38
1e3 402.20 10e15 0.00 17e19 180.61
2e1 162.20 10e16 0.00 18e7 423.78
2e6 504.46 10e17 0.00 18e16 452.47
3e1 266.67 11e4 159.40 18e20 106.67
3e4 658.36 11e10 0.00 19e15 180.61
3e12 677.97 11e12 175.66 19e17 224.38
4e3 595.77 11e14 318.76 19e20 106.67
4e5 720.00 12e3 605.02 20e18 264.53
4e11 208.09 12e11 122.93 20e19 171.05
5e4 786.10 12e13 812.66 20e21 315.25
5e6 358.46 13e12 686.99 20e22 289.17
5e9 228.20 13e24 380.63 21e20 80.00
6e2 160.00 14e11 322.80 21e22 190.95
6e5 333.46 14e15 160.97 21e24 309.66
6e8 518.46 14e23 173.66 22e15 357.56
7e8 329.77 15e10 26.67 22e20 53.33
7e18 411.69 15e14 186.76 22e21 335.07
8e6 148.99 15e19 160.00 22e23 208.62
8e7 451.01 15e22 325.72 23e14 151.91
8e9 345.98 16e8 165.20 23e22 148.74
8e16 242.32 16e10 160.00 23e24 291.02
9e5 345.98 16e17 180.61 24e13 388.29
9e8 174.87 16e18 413.37 24e21 250.29
9e10 53.33 17e10 0.00 24e23 209.39
10e9 0.00

Fig. 6. Changes in the total travel time in different scenarios.

Fig. 5. Convergence of the ASA.

scenarios are shown in Table 5. The calculation time of the model is

according to He et al. (2014). The remainder of the parameters not discussed
approximately 2 minutes.
here are the same as those set in Subsection 6.1.
Notably, the number of lanes to be expanded gradually increases with the
We set the government investment scale to seven values (IS0~IS6) at a
government investment scale. As the scale of investment increased, the total
certain interval from 0 to 140, and the degree of the travel demand uncertainty
travel time decreased from 67,806 min to 66,805 min, a decrease of 14.76%.
is fixed (i.e., F ¼ 5 and x ¼ 0:5). The optimal lane expansion schemes and
In different scenarios, up to 9
total travel times in different

Table 2
Optimal lane expansion schemes in different scenarios.

8
Scenario Value of F Value of x Optimal lane expansion scheme Total travel time ( 10 min)
UD1 0 0 1e3 (one lane), 22e21 (one lane) 1.0317
UD2 45 0 21e22 (one lane), 24e13 (one lane) 1.0386
UD3 90 0 4e5 (one lane), 5e4 (one lane), 23e24 (one lane) 1.0872
UD4 (UD1) 0 0.5 1e3 (one lane), 22e21 (one lane) 1.0317
UD5 45 0.5 4e5 (one lane), 7e18 (one lane), 8e6 (one lane) 1.0518
UD6 90 0.5 4e5 (two lanes), 6e8 (one lane) 1.0700
UD7 (UD1) 0 1 1e3 (one lane), 22e21 (one lane) 1.0317
UD8 45 1 4e5 (one lane), 7e18 (one lane), 8e6 (one lane) 1.0518
UD9 90 1 4e5 (one lane), 7e18 (one lane), 8e6 (one lane) 1.0904

10
K. Cheng, Y. Zou, X. Xin et al. Journal of Cleaner Production 276 (2020) 124198

lanes have been added. At different investment scales, links 7e11, 11e2 and Table 3
11e3 repeatedly appear. In the scenario with the largest investment (i.e., OeD matrix of the NguyeneDupius network.

Scenario IS6), all 3 links need to be expanded with 3 lanes. This result OD 2 3 8
suggests that based on the current trans-portation demand situation, the 1 [320, 480] [640, 960] e
bottlenecks (critical link) in the BEV transportation network are the above 4 [480, 720] [160, 240] [400, 600]
three links. Fig. 8 shows the total travel time in different scenarios. A 5 [320, 480] e [320, 480]
significant decline occurred between scenarios IS3 and IS4. Therefore, it is 6 e [160, 240] e
10 e [320, 480] e
best for the government to set the current BEV transportation network in-
12 [400, 600] e e
vestment scale to 100. When the government formulates an expansion plan,
the capital budget should also be considered an important factor.
Table 4
Parameters used in the NguyeneDupius network.
No. Link tfree ca No. Link tfree ca
6.4. Discussions a a
1 1e5 11.06 14.7 11 8e2 14.22 18.9
2 1e12 14.22 18.9 12 9e10 15.8 21
Based on the above calculation results and analysis, we further discuss the
3 4e5 14.22 18.9 13 9e13 14.22 18.9
direction of urban transportation sustainable develop-ment in the future. 4 4e9 18.96 25.2 14 10e11 9.48 12.6
5 5e6 4.74 6.3 15 11e2 14.22 18.9
First, the government should pay special attention to the plan-ning of 6 5e9 14.22 18.9 16 11e3 12.64 16.8
urban spatial structure. Highways and vehicles are the core elements of the 7 6e7 7.9 10.5 17 12e6 11.06 14.7
8 6e10 20.54 27.3 18 12e8 22.12 29.4
urban transportation network, which have gradu-ally developed along with
9 7e8 7.9 10.5 19 13e3 17.38 23.1
urban construction process. Therefore, the urban spatial structure undoubtedly 10 7e11 14.22 18.9
has a major impact on the structure of the urban transportation system. From
the experi-mental results, one can see that there are differences in the
congestion mitigation space of different networks. This makes the
more sustainable vehicles, such as BEVs and HEVs. Although the
government need to carefully consider the issue of sustainable development in
introduction of BEVs/HEVs to reduce emissions is undoubtedly the most
the early stage of urban construction planning. A good urban spatial structure
reliable method, there is still a long way to go due to problems such as high
layout helps to form an efficient and sustainable urban transportation system.
vehicle purchase costs and short cruising range.
The lack of guidance and control will result in inefficient expansion of urban
space. Obvi-ously, this is a more macroscopic problem that the government
needs to consider. In recent years, the concepts of smart city and green city 7. Conclusions
have been proposed by scholars. With the help of infor-mation technology
and spatial analysis methods, the government can guide the construction of a With the significant increase in the number of BEVs, the gov-ernment
sustainable transport system through a scientific and reasonable urban spatial urgently needs a transportation network construction guideline to alleviate
structure layout. congestion. However, existing research on NDP for BEV transportation
network usually focuses on network equilibrium and facility construction and
lacks a systematic network optimization theory. In response to the above
Second, the government should take responsibility for congestion shortcom-ings, we model a novel optimal lane expansion problem for a BEV
mitigation and emission reduction in the urban transportation sys-tem. Since transportation network. Specifically, we first establish the network equilibrium
the Copenhagen World Climate Conference was held, gov-ernments around conditions considering the charging behavior and range anxiety of BEV
the world have taken emission reduction as a national strategy and have drivers. Then, these conditions are further introduced to the lane expansion
actively promoted emission reduction in various fields. As traffic congestion (network design) model. To deal with the uncertain factors of transportation
will cause more carbon emis-sions, how to reduce the total travel time has demand, a robust optimization method is further applied. The
become an important indicator in sustainable transport field. According to the abovementioned methodology allows the government to consider system-
calculation results, the government’s investment in the expansion of the high- level operational management for BEV under uncertain environment. Finally,
way is indeed an effective means to alleviate congestion. In addition, the an active set algorithm embedded in the column generation algorithm is
government should take a series of measures such as taxes and subsidies to designed to solve the model. From the perspective of computing time, our
improve traffic conditions. At the same time, the gov-ernment should also proposed algorithm is more efficient than evolutionary algorithm (such as
encourage and support citizens to purchase genetic algorithm). This makes our method suitable for case analysis in
medium- and large-scale BEV transportation networks. Through several
sensitivity analyses for varying degrees of uncertainty and investment scales,
we can draw the following conclusions.

(1) The results of optimizing the Sioux Falls network show that the
optimization scheme can help reduce the total travel time by 28.54%.
The average travel time per vehicle is reduced from 107.06 min to
76.58 min. The calculation time of the model is approximately 3 hours.
From the results of sensitivity analysis and calculation time, the
effectiveness of the model and algorithm can be verified. It can also be
found from the calculation results that some links will not be used. The
government should consider a reasonable layout of
Fig. 7. NguyeneDupius network.

11
K. Cheng, Y. Zou, X. Xin et al.
Table 5
Optimal lane expansion plan in different scenarios.
Scenario Parameters setting Investment scale
IS0 F ¼5, 0 None
IS1 x ¼ 0:5 40
IS2 60
IS3 80
IS4 100
IS5 120
IS6 140
Fig. 8. Total travel time in different scenarios (F ¼ 5 and x ¼ 0:5).
charging stations to ensure that BEVs can drive on all links of the
transportation network to make full use of highway resources.
(2) With the increase in fluctuations in the total travel demand, the total
travel time increases. Regardless of how the demand fluctuates, there
are always some links worth expanding. This finding indicates that
there are always ‘bottlenecks’ or ‘critical links’ in the BEV
transportation network. The gov-ernment should prioritize the
infrastructure construction of these links and the nearby nodes.
(3) Numerical experiments based on the NguyeneDupius network show
that the government has an optimal invest-ment scale. Overinvestment
by the government will not bring about continuous improvement of the
transportation network. The government should carefully determine
the investment scale of the lane expansion plan based on the effects of
unit investment.
(4) The sustainable development of the urban transportation system is
inseparable from the urban spatial structure design and the alleviation
of traffic congestion. In the initial stage of urban construction, a good
urban spatial structure will guide urban traffic to a greener direction.
Governments around the world should also make emission reduction
and congestion alleviation the focus of urban traffic governance and
promote various green transport policies. Encouraging citizens to buy
BEVs/HEVs is also an option.
Overall, our findings can provide some useful insights for the government
to design a BEV transportation network and related sustainable policies.
When considering NDP involving BEVs, the government should focus on the
characteristics of both BEV drivers (i.e., range anxiety) and network itself
(i.e., demand uncertainty). Note that the methodology proposed in this paper
provides a way to collaboratively model BEV drivers’ range anxiety, O-D
demand un-certainty and the expansion scheme of a BEV transportation
network.
Journal of Cleaner Production 276 (2020) 124198
Optimal lane expansion scheme Total travel time (min)
67,806.09
7-11 (one lane), 11e3 (two lanes) 67,211.90
7-11 (two lanes), 11e2 (one lane), 11e3 (one lane) 66,982.00
7-11 (three lanes), 11e2 (one lane), 11e3 (one lane) 66,963.13
7-11 (three lanes), 11e2 (two lanes), 11e3 (two lanes) 66,845.07
7-11 (two lanes), 11e2 (three lanes), 11e3 (three lanes) 66,824.58
7-11 (three lanes), 11e2 (three lanes), 11e3 (three lanes) 66,805.71
Even for different vehicle types (e.g., HEVs, buses and trucks), similar case
studies can be carried out by adjusting the related parameters. Through a
simple modification of the model, more case studies of BEV transportation
network design considering different driving charac-teristics or network
characteristics are also be able to propose.
By and large, our findings can also indirectly provide some guidance for
the government to understand the difficulties in policy design for the BEVs.
Different from traditional gasoline vehicles, BEVs have new characteristics
that require the government to take special considerations in policy design,
transportation network design, and infrastructure construction. When carrying
out case studies that include these strategic-level issues, the methodology
proposed in this paper can also provide necessary reference for the
government.
Future work can be conducted from the following perspectives. First, the
problem becomes more complicated when we consider a nonlinear energy
consumption function related to both the driving time and distance. Second, in
addition to the uncertain demand, an elastic demand could be further
considered. Third, government tax and subsidy policies and the related
pricing problem based on the BEV-NDP we proposed can also be explored in
future research.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Kai Cheng: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Formal analysis,
Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. Yajie Zou: Methodology,
Funding acquisition, Writing - review & editing. Xu Xin: Conceptualization,
Methodology, Software, Formal anal-ysis, Supervision, Funding acquisition,
Validation, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing. Shuaiyu
Gong: Investigation, Software, Writing - original draft, Data curation,
Visualization.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests
or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work
reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to express their gratitude to the support by the
National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant number 71971160) and
the Social Sciences Research Program Foundation of Liaoning Province
(Grant number L19BGL005).
References
Aghassi, M., Bertsimas, D., Perakis, G., 2006. Solving asymmetric variational in-equalities via
convex optimization. Oper. Res. Lett. 34 (5), 481e490.
Bahrami, S., Nourinejad, M., Amirjamshidi, G., Roorda, M.J., 2020. The Plugin Hybrid Electric
Vehicle routing problem: a power-management strategy model. Transport. Res. C Emerg.
Technol. 111, 318e333.
Beckmann, M., McGuire, C.B., Winsten, C.B., 1956. Studies in the Economics of
Transportation.
Bell, M.G., Iida, Y., 1997. Transportation Network Analysis.
12
K. Cheng, Y. Zou, X. Xin et al.
Bell, M.G., Pan, J.-J., Teye, C., Cheung, K.-F., Perera, S., 2019. An Entropy Maximizing
Approach to the Ferry Network Design Problem. Transportation Research Part B:
Methodological.
Ben-Tal, A., Goryashko, A., Guslitzer, E., Nemirovski, A., 2004. Adjustable robust solutions of
uncertain linear programs. Math. Program. 99 (2), 351e376.
Bertsimas, D., Sim, M., 2004. The price of robustness. Oper. Res. 52 (1), 35e53. Birrell, S.A.,
McGordon, A., Jennings, P.A., 2014. Defining the accuracy of real-world
range estimations of an electric vehicle. In: 17th International IEEE Conference On
Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSC). IEEE, pp. 2590e2595.
Canca, D., De-Los-Santos, A., Laporte, G., Mesa, J.A., 2019. Integrated railway rapid transit
network design and line planning problem with maximum profit. Transport. Res. E Logist.
Transport. Rev. 127, 1e30.
Chen, Z., He, F., Yin, Y., 2016. Optimal deployment of charging lanes for electric vehicles in
transportation networks. Transp. Res. Part B Methodol. 91, 344e365.
CPLEX, I., 2008. 11.0 Reference Manual. ILOG CPLEX Division, Gentilly.
d’Ouville, E.L., McDonald, J.F., 1990. Effects of demand uncertainty on optimal ca- pacity and
congestion tolls for urban highways. J. Urban Econ. 28 (1), 63e70.
Dantzig, G.B., Ramser, J.H., 1959. The truck dispatching problem. Manag. Sci. 6 (1), 80e91.
Drud, A., 1995. CONOPT: a System for Large Scale Nonlinear Optimization, Tutorial for
CONOPT Subroutine Library. ARKI Consulting and Development A/S, Bags-vaerd, p. 16.
Eshtehadi, R., Fathian, M., Demir, E., 2017. Robust solutions to the pollution-routing problem
with demand and travel time uncertainty. Transport. Res. Transport Environ. 51, 351e363.
Gardner, L.M., Duell, M., Waller, S.T., 2013. A framework for evaluating the role of electric
vehicles in transportation network infrastructure under travel demand variability. Transport.
Res. Pol. Pract. 49, 76e90.
Guihaire, V., Hao, J.-K., 2008. Transit network design and scheduling: a global re-view.
Transport. Res. Pol. Pract. 42 (10), 1251e1273.
Guo, F., Yang, J., Lu, J., 2018. The battery charging station location problem: impact of users’
range anxiety and distance convenience. Transport. Res. E Logist. Transport. Rev. 114,
1e18.
He, F., Yin, Y., Lawphongpanich, S., 2014. Network equilibrium models with battery electric
vehicles. Transp. Res. Part B Methodol. 67, 306e319.
He, J., Yang, H., Tang, T.-Q., Huang, H.-J., 2020. Optimal deployment of wireless charging
lanes considering their adverse effect on road capacity. Transport. Res. C Emerg. Technol.
111, 171e184.
Huang, K., Kanaroglou, P., Zhang, X., 2016. The design of electric vehicle charging network.
Transport. Res. Transport Environ. 49, 1e17.
Iliopoulou, C., Kepaptsoglou, K., 2019. Integrated transit route network design and
infrastructure planning for on-line electric vehicles. Transport. Res. Transport Environ. 77,
178e197.
Jiang, J., Zhang, D., Meng, Q., Liu, Y., 2020. Regional multimodal logistics network design
considering demand uncertainty and CO2 emission reduction target: a system-optimization
approach. J. Clean. Prod. 248, 119304.
Keskin, M., Çatay, B., 2016. Partial recharge strategies for the electric vehicle routing problem
with time windows. Transport. Res. C Emerg. Technol. 65, 111e127.
Kraus, M., 1982. Highway pricing and capacity choice under uncertain demand.
J. Urban Econ. 12 (1), 122e128.
Lawphongpanich, S., Yin, Y., 2010. Solving the Pareto-improving toll problem via manifold
suboptimization. Transport. Res. C Emerg. Technol. 18 (2), 234e246.
Lazarus, R.S., Folkman, S., 1984. Stress, Appraisal, and Coping. Springer publishing company.
Liu, Z., Song, Z., 2018. Network user equilibrium of battery electric vehicles considering flow-
dependent electricity consumption. Transport. Res. C Emerg. Technol. 95, 516e544.
Liu, Z., Wang, S., Zhou, B., Cheng, Q., 2017. Robust optimization of distance-based tolls in a
network considering stochastic day to day dynamics. Transport. Res.
13
Journal of Cleaner Production 276 (2020) 124198
C Emerg. Technol. 79, 58e72.
Lo, H.K., An, K., Lin, W.-h., 2013. Ferry service network design under demand un- certainty.
Transport. Res. E Logist. Transport. Rev. 59, 48e70.
Luettringhaus, H., Nilsson, M., 2012. Elvire approaches to mitigate EV driver’s range anxiety,
Technical paper by ELVIREeEuropean research project on ICT for electric vehicles. In:
Proceedings of 19th ITS World Congress, Vienna, Austria, pp. 22e26.
Lugannani, R., Rice, S., 1980. Saddle point approximation for the distribution of the sum of
independent random variables. Adv. Appl. Probab. 12 (2), 475e490.
Montoya, A., Gueret, C., Mendoza, J.E., Villegas, J.G., 2017. The electric vehicle routing
problem with nonlinear charging function. Transp. Res. Part B Meth-odol. 103, 87e110.
Nilsson, M., 2014. Does range anxiety exist? Experiences from the ELVIRE project. In: 5th
International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics (AHFE), pp. 1e7.
Pelletier, S., Jabali, O., Laporte, G., 2016. 50th anniversary invited articledgoods distribution
with electric vehicles: review and research perspectives. Transport. Sci. 50 (1), 3e22.
Pelletier, S., Jabali, O., Laporte, G., 2019. The electric vehicle routing problem with energy
consumption uncertainty. Transp. Res. Part B Methodol. 126, 225e255.
Perez, J.M.Q., Lange, J.-C., Tancrez, J.-S., 2018. A multi-hub Express Shipment Service
Network Design model with flexible hub assignment. Transport. Res. E Logist. Transport.
Rev. 120, 116e131.
Rauh, N., Franke, T., Krems, J.F., 2017. First-time experience of critical range situa-tions in
BEV use and the positive effect of coping information. Transport. Res. F Traffic Psychol.
Behav. 44, 30e41.
Schiffer, M., Schneider, M., Walther, G., Laporte, G., 2019. Vehicle routing and location
routing with intermediate stops: a review. Transport. Sci. 53 (2), 319e343.
Skamris, M.K., Flyvbjerg, B., 1996. Accuracy of traffic forecasts and cost estimates on large
transportation projects. Transport. Res. Rec. 1518 (1), 65e69.
Sweda, T.M., Dolinskaya, I.S., Klabjan, D., 2017. Optimal recharging policies for electric
vehicles. Transport. Sci. 51 (2), 457e479.
Wang, Y., Bi, J., Guan, W., Zhao, X., 2018. Optimising route choices for the travelling and
charging of battery electric vehicles by considering multiple objectives. Transport. Res.
Transport Environ. 64, 246e261.
Wu, L., Gu, W., Fan, W., Cassidy, M.J., 2020. Optimal design of transit networks fed by shared
bikes. Transp. Res. Part B Methodol. 131, 63e83.
Xiao, Y., Konak, A., 2016. The heterogeneous green vehicle routing and scheduling problem
with time-varying traffic congestion. Transport. Res. E Logist. Trans-port. Rev. 88,
146e166.
Xie, F., Liu, C., Li, S., Lin, Z., Huang, Y., 2018. Long-term strategic planning of inter-city fast
charging infrastructure for battery electric vehicles. Transport. Res. E Logist. Transport.
Rev. 109, 261e276.
Xu, M., Meng, Q., Liu, K., 2017. Network user equilibrium problems for the mixed battery
electric vehicles and gasoline vehicles subject to battery swapping stations and road grade
constraints. Transp. Res. Part B Methodol. 99, 138e166.
Yu, A.S.O., Silva, L.L.C., Chu, C.L., Nascimento, P.T.S., Camargo, A.S., 2011. Electric
vehicles: struggles in creating a market. In: 2011 Proceedings Of PICMET’11: Technology
Management In the Energy Smart World (PICMET). IEEE, pp. 1e13.
Zhang, L., Lawphongpanich, S., Yin, Y., 2009. An Active-Set Algorithm for Discrete Network
Design Problems, Transportation And Traffic Theory 2009: Golden Jubilee. Springer, pp.
283e300.
Zhang, S., Chen, M., Zhang, W., 2019. A novel location-routing problem in electric vehicle
transportation with stochastic demands. J. Clean. Prod. 221, 567e581.
Zuo, X., Xiao, Y., You, M., Kaku, I., Xu, Y., 2019. A new formulation of the electric vehicle
routing problem with time windows considering concave nonlinear charging function. J.
Clean. Prod. 236, 117687.