Less Congestion Implies Less Energy Consumption: Is It Really True?

Decreasing road transport's harmful effects on environment and health and reducing road accidents are major priorities. The European Union (EU) has set the target to achieve low emission mobility by 2050 and zero emission mobility in the longer-term.Several technology options could drastically improve air quality, reduce energy consumption and CO₂ emissions. The current trend is directed towards Plug-in Electric Vehicles (PEVs), supported by improved performance through connectivity and automation technologies. Waiting the total transition from Internal Combustion Engine Vehicles (ICEVs) to the alternative technologies, it is important to understand how Intelligent Transport Systems and other traffic –related measures can contribute to actually reduce fuel consumption and emissions. In fact it is a common assumption that as soon as congestion is removed or mitigated also transport related externalities are reduced.Objective of the present paper is to perform a preliminary investigation to check whether this is still true with the new technologies which are being introduced in modern vehicles. In particular, the paper compares the results for different test-cases in congested and free flow conditions of four powertrain vehicle combinations.The calculations are done with two vehicle simulators: the VT-CPEM model for PEVs and the CO₂MPAS vehicle simulator for the ICEVs.Preliminary results show that moving from ICEVs to PEVs, the relationship between congestion and energy consumption can change with higher energy consumption connected to the free-flow test-cases. They also show the need for careful analyses when assessing the environmental benefits of traffic related measures.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ADC70 Standing Committee on Transportation Energy.
• Authors:
  • Fiori, Chiara
  • Arcidiacono, Vincenzo
  • Fontaras, Georgios
  • Komnos, Dimitris
  • Makridis, Michail
  • Marzano, Vittorio
  • Mattas, Kostantinos
  • Thiel, Christian
  • Ciuffo, Biagio
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 97th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2018-1-7 to 2018-1-11
• Date: 2018

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 9p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alternatives analysis; Driving simulators; Electric vehicles; Energy consumption; Free flow speeds; Internal combustion engines; Power trains; Traffic congestion
• Identifier Terms: European Union
• Subject Areas: Energy; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01662695
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 18-04457
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 16 2018 9:50AM