Do Mobility-Based Performance Measures Reflect Emissions Trends?
Given the commonly assumed association between traffic congestion and emissions, this paper addresses the question of whether mobility-based performance measures are associated with emissions performance measures. Two facets of the roadway congestion-emissions relationship are investigated: (a) whether congestion performance measures are good indicators of trends in roadway emissions and (b) what transportation performance measures are better suited to portray macroscopic trends in emissions. In order to answer these research questions the authors estimate macroscopic transportation and emissions performance measures at metropolitan and corridor levels. Comparing several measures, the correlation between transportation performance measures and emissions are calculated. An analytical framework to understand emissions trends as a function of mobility and travel demand variables is also presented. Results show that Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) and Vehicle Hours Traveled (VHT) are key factors to understanding emissions trends. Mobility measures (such as travel speed and delay) and related congestion measures (such as percent of travel in congestion) are only weakly correlated with emissions.
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Supplemental Notes:
- This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ABC30 Performance Measurement
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Corporate Authors:
500 Fifth Street, NW
Washington, DC United States 20001 -
Authors:
- Bigazzi, Alexander Y
- Figliozzi, Miguel A
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Conference:
- Transportation Research Board 91st Annual Meeting
- Location: Washington DC, United States
- Date: 2012-1-22 to 2012-1-26
- Date: 2012
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: Digital/other
- Features: Figures; References; Tables;
- Pagination: 20p
- Monograph Title: TRB 91st Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Correlation analysis; Exhaust gases; Macroscopic traffic flow; Metropolitan areas; Performance measurement; Traffic congestion; Travel demand; Trend (Statistics); Vehicle miles of travel
- Subject Areas: Environment; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Planning and Forecasting; I15: Environment; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01368128
- Record Type: Publication
- Report/Paper Numbers: 12-1998
- Files: TRIS, TRB
- Created Date: Apr 20 2012 12:08PM