Ecolane Applications: Preliminary Testing and Evaluation

This study investigated the feasibility of ecolane applications along a section of Interstate 66 in Northern Virginia. In ecolanes, drivers are required to operate the vehicle at recommended or variable speed limits to reduce transportation energy consumption and improve vehicle mobility. The study focused its efforts on evaluation of various ecolane algorithms and speed harmonization (SPD-HARM) applications through the use of INTEGRATION microscopic traffic simulation software. The study demonstrated that the proposed ecolanes system could significantly improve fuel efficiency and air quality while reducing average vehicle travel time and total delay. For this case study, the ecolane system reduced delay, fuel consumption, and emissions of hydrocarbon (HC), carbon monoxide (CO), and carbon dioxide (CO₂) by 23%, 4.5%, 3.1%, 3.4%, and 4.6%, respectively, compared with those in the base case scenario. The study also examined the feasibility of a predictive ecolane system and demonstrated that such a system could improve the performance of the original ecolane system. Furthermore, this study demonstrated that optimum throttle levels and optimum ecospeed limits (speed limits that were optimized for mobility, fuel consumption, and emissions levels) could significantly improve the performance of the ecolane system. Finally, the study demonstrated that SPD-HARM across all vehicles and lanes reduced the system delay, fuel consumption, and emissions of HC, CO, oxides of nitrogen, and CO₂ by 7.6%, 6.3%, 23.9%, 26.1%, 17.2%, and 4.4%, respectively, compared with those in the base case scenario.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.3141/2427-05
• Summary URL:
  http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=Ecolane+Applications%3a+Preliminary+Testing+and+Evaluation&author=K.+Ahn&author=H.+Rakha&publication_year=2014
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/9780309295284
• Authors:
  • Ahn, Kyoungho
  • Rakha, Hesham A
• Publication Date: 2014

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 41–53
• Monograph Title: Air Quality 2014, Volume 1
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
  • Issue Number: 2427
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Air quality; Case studies; Energy consumption; Environmental impacts; Mobility; Sustainable transportation; Traffic lanes; Traffic simulation; Travel time; Variable speed limits
• Identifier Terms: Interstate 66
• Geographic Terms: Virginia
• Subject Areas: Energy; Environment; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; I15: Environment; I73: Traffic Control;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01515570
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9780309295284
• Report/Paper Numbers: 14-3784
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 24 2014 8:43AM