Statistical Approach to Estimating Truck Traffic Speed and Its Application to Emission Inventory Modeling

Heavy-duty diesel trucks are a significant source of carbon dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, and particulate matter emissions. The construction of accurate emission inventories of these trucks requires a proper characterization of their speed because emission rates vary substantially by speed. However, data regarding truck speed have been very limited to date. This paper presents a statistical method for estimating truck traffic speed that takes advantage of the existing traffic monitoring systems. With traffic data from these systems examined, it was found that truck traffic speed can be effectively estimated on the basis of the knowledge of the overall traffic speed alone. The relationships between the two variables are shown to be very strong, with the coefficient of determination of the regression equations being .98 or higher. All regression coefficients are found to be statistically significant at the 5% alpha level. In addition, the validation results of the estimated truck traffic speed show a good estimation performance of the regression equations, where most of the average absolute errors are within the range of 2 to 4 mph. On the basis of the developed statistical relationship, regional truck activity, in terms of vehicle miles traveled versus speed distribution, on Southern California freeways was estimated and used to construct the associated running exhaust emission inventories. The resulting emission inventories show that using the heavy-duty diesel truck-specific speed distribution rather than the overall speed distribution reduces the estimates of oxides of nitrogen emissions by 4% and particulate matter emissions by 26%.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.3141/2233-13
• Summary URL:
  http://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=Statistical+Approach+to+Estimating+Truck+Traffic+Speed+and+Its+Application+to+Emission+Inventory+Modeling&author=K.+Boriboonsomsin&author=W.+Zhu&author=M.+Barth&publication_year=2011
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://www.trb.org/Main/Blurbs/166402.aspx
• Authors:
  • Boriboonsomsin, Kanok
  • Zhu, Weihua
  • Barth, Matthew
• Publication Date: 2011

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 110-119
• Monograph Title: Environment 2011
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board
  • Issue Number: 2233
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Carbon dioxide; Diesel trucks; Heavy duty trucks; Nitrogen oxides; Particulates; Pollutants; Regression analysis; Speed data; Speed distribution; Statistical analysis; Traffic data; Traffic speed; Truck traffic; Vehicle miles of travel
• Uncontrolled Terms: Emissions inventories
• Geographic Terms: Southern California
• Subject Areas: Environment; Motor Carriers; I15: Environment; I90: Vehicles;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01338015
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 9780309167499
• Report/Paper Numbers: 11-0150
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Apr 28 2011 7:00AM