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Title:

Are Ecolanes a Sustainable Option to Reduce Emissions in a Medium-Sized European City?

Accession Number:

01474183

Record Type:

Component

Availability:

Transportation Research Board Business Office

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Abstract:

Innovative traffic management measures are needed to reduce transportation-related emissions on arterials and freeways. While in Europe, road lane management has focused mainly on introduction of bus lanes, the conversion to High Occupancy Vehicles (HOV) and eco-lanes (lanes dedicated to vehicles running on alternative fuels) has not been studied comprehensively. The objectives of this research are to: 1) Develop an integrated microscale modeling platform calibrated with real world data to assess both traffic and emissions impacts of future Traffic Management Strategies (TMS) in an urban area; 2) Evaluate the introduction of eco-lanes in three different types of roads in European medium-sized cities and its effects in terms of emissions and traffic performance. The methodology consists of three distinct phases: a) Traffic and road inventory data collection, b) Traffic and emissions modeling using an integrated platform of microsimulation, and c) Evaluation of scenarios. For the baseline scenario, the statistical analysis of the integrated platform show valid results, i.e., no significant differences between simulated and Vehicle Specific Power (VSP) modal distributions. Moreover, the methodology applied shows that HOV and eco-lanes in a medium European city are feasible. The results show that on freeways a majority of passengers can reduce their travel time about 5% with a positive impact in terms of total emissions (-3% CO2,-14% CO, -8% NOX). On urban arterials, emissions reduction can be achieved only if the average occupancy of vehicles increases from 1.37 (current) to 1.50. The broader implications for eco-lanes are discussed.

Supplemental Notes:

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADC20 Transportation and Air Quality.

Monograph Accession #:

01470560

Report/Paper Numbers:

13-0550

Language:

English

Corporate Authors:

Transportation Research Board

500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC 20001 United States

Authors:

Fontes, Tânia
Fernandes, Paulo
Rodrigues, Hugo
Bandeira, Jorge
Pereira, Sérgio Ramos
Khattak, Asad J
Coelho, Margarida C

Pagination:

19p

Publication Date:

2013

Conference:

Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting

Location: Washington DC, United States
Date: 2013-1-13 to 2013-1-17
Sponsors: Transportation Research Board

Media Type:

Digital/other

Features:

Figures; References; Tables

Uncontrolled Terms:

Vehicle specific power

Geographic Terms:

Europe

Subject Areas:

Environment; Highways; Planning and Forecasting; I15: Environment; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning

Source Data:

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2013 Paper #13-0550

Files:

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Created Date:

Feb 5 2013 12:14PM