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Title: Effect of High-Occupancy Toll Lanes on Mass Vehicle Emissions: Application to I-85 in Atlanta, Georgia
Accession Number: 01126825
Record Type: Component
Record URL: Availability: Transportation Research Board Business Office 500 Fifth Street, NW Find a library where document is available Abstract: High-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes were recently proposed for I-85 in Atlanta, Georgia, as a way to relieve congestion and to provide a reliable commute time for single-occupant drivers who are willing to pay a toll. It is important to evaluate the air quality impacts of such a proposal in the context of environmental regulations, such as the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), and transportation conformity regulations. Several factors affect mass vehicle emissions, such as vehicle activity, speed, age distributions, and class distributions. These factors are incorporated into a base scenario that models the current conditions on I-85 with high-occupancy vehicle lanes by using data collected in the corridor during the summer of 2007, and a future scenario that models the implementation of HOT lanes on this corridor by using information from cities that already have HOT lanes. The MOBILE-Matrix modeling tool, recently developed by the Georgia Institute of Technology, is used for the emissions analysis by means of the input factors described above. It calculates mass emissions for five pollutants: hydrocarbons (HC), oxides of nitrogen (NOx), carbon monoxide (CO), particulate matter with an aerodynamic diameter of 2.5 µm or smaller (PM2.5), and PM10 (with an aerodynamic diameter of 10 µm or smaller) as a function of fleet composition and on-road operating conditions. The modeling work predicts extremely small increases in mass emissions for NOx, CO, PM2.5, and PM10, and an extremely small decrease in mass emissions for HC. In addition, the postimplementation emissions changes fall well within the motor vehicle emissions budgets for the facility that are used in air quality planning. Therefore, implementation of HOT lanes on I-85 in Atlanta should not violate the emissions budget requirements of the federal Transportation Conformity Rule. For NEPA purposes, this analysis could be used to make the case that air quality impacts are not significant, and therefore further detailed analyses are not required.
Monograph Title: Monograph Accession #: 01147486
Report/Paper Numbers: 09-0491
Language: English
Authors: Kall, David NGuensler, Randall LRodgers, Michael OwenPandey, Vishal ShriniwasPagination: pp 88-96
Publication Date: 2009
ISBN: 9780309142526
Media Type: Print
Features: Figures
(4)
; References
(9)
; Tables
(5)
TRT Terms: Identifier Terms: Geographic Terms: Subject Areas: Environment; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; I15: Environment; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning
Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
Created Date: Jan 30 2009 4:45PM
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