Complete Streets Designs: A Comparative Emission Impact Analysis

“Complete Streets” philosophy promotes sustainable and green designs for public roadways and areas. While complete streets designs offer myriads of benefits, little effort has been put into quantifying the vehicle emission impacts of complete streets projects. The main objective of this article is to tackle this issue by calculating and comparing emission and pollutant levels between an existing traditional street and different complete streets design scenarios. By specifically considering a section of the four-lane South Halsted Street in Chicago, IL, three different street design scenarios were analyzed: (1) existing design with all mixed-use lanes, (2) two outside lanes for parking and green area, (3) two outside lanes for buses and bicycles only. The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA’s) MOVES2010b emission analysis software was used to estimate the levels of CO, CO2, NOx, and PM2.5. Results showed that the existing design performed best with respect to CO and CO2, while the design involving bus-only lanes resulted in the lowest levels of NOx, and PM2.5. Although these results seem counter-intuitive, they highlight the fact that congestion levels on small-scale complete streets designs may have adverse impacts in terms of emissions. As a result, four relevant points are listed for future complete streets projects.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AFB40 Landscape and Environmental Design. Alternate title: Complete Streets Designs: Comparative Emission Impact Analysis.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Peiravian, Farideddin
  • Derrible, Sybil
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC
  • Date: 2014-1-12 to 2014-1-16
• Date: 2014

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Maps; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 15p
• Monograph Title: TRB 93rd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Air pollution; Carbon dioxide; Carbon monoxide; Complete streets; Environmental impact analysis; Exhaust gases; Highway design; Nitrogen oxides; Particulates
• Identifier Terms: Motor Vehicle Emission Simulator (MOVES)
• Geographic Terms: Chicago (Illinois)
• Subject Areas: Design; Environment; Highways; I15: Environment; I20: Design and Planning of Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01514492
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 14-1814
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 18 2014 5:21PM