Estimating Vehicular Emission Impact of Nighttime Construction with VISSIM and Different MOVES Emission Estimation Approaches

Abstract

Shifting work zones from daytime to nighttime is a potential solution to air quality issues on roadway with high traffic volume and where it is undesirable to close lanes during peak hours. The expected benefit of such shifting is to reduce total fuel consumption and on-road vehicle emissions. However, the magnitude of emission reductions and air quality impacts has not been examined comprehensively at work zones. The study presented in this paper investigated the traffic-related emission impacts of work zones using an urban freeway case study. A VISSIM test bed combined with the Environmental Protection Agency’s MOVES emission model was used to estimate total emissions assuming daytime and nighttime lane-closure scenarios. Vehicle emissions were estimated using a link-based method and operating mode-based method. The results from both methods demonstrated that nighttime construction has a significant impact on both traffic speeds and vehicle emissions, primarily as a result of reductions in vehicle miles traveled. In addition, a horizontal comparison between the results from the two methods was made to assess the impact of different emission estimation approaches. The outcomes from the comparison highlight the potential importance of the operating mode-based approach for accurately estimate total traffic emission quantities when data or simulations are available.

Measurement Models for Carbon Dioxide Emission Factors of Passenger Cars Considering Characteristics of Roads and Traffic

“…Vlieger et al studied the influence of driving behavior and traffic conditions on fuel consumption and emissions for a small test fleet of passenger cars; city traffic was found to have the highest fuel consumption and emissions [ 11 ]. Gu et al investigated the traffic-related emission impacts of work zones using an urban freeway case study; a VISSIM test bed combined with the Environmental Protection Agency’s MOVES emission model was used to estimate the total emissions assuming daytime and nighttime lane-closure scenarios [ 12 ]. You et al explored the relationship between the horizontal curve radius and carbon dioxide emissions on freeways from field tests under real world driving conditions through the development of an emission factor model (EFM) [ 13 ].…”

Performance Analyses of Information-Based Managed Lane Choice Decisions in a Connected Vehicle Environment

“…Moreover, the desired speed distributions (40) for MLs and GPLs are calibrated and validated by field measured travel time values (36,41). Florence and Guo (36) performed an empirical study to collect acceleration profiles of random vehicles and revealed that for more realistic performance measurements the default VISSIM desired acceleration function needs to be calibrated, especially when researchers try to simulate a network with stop-and-go traffic or for emission effect study (42). Nevertheless, this study modeled CV internally.…”

Development of a Simplified Model of Speed-Specific Vehicle-Specific Power Distribution Based on Vehicle Weight for Fuel Consumption Estimates

“…As mentioned earlier, collecting enough local vehicle trajectory data is expensive and time-consuming. Collecting data by simulation has also been used for emission estimates (6)(7)(8). However, the accuracy of the simulation data in reflecting real-world driving conditions was questioned (9).…”