Urban transportation energy conservation: analysis of traffic engineering actions
The interrelationships among highway supply, vehicular travel demand, and vehicular fuel consumption are systematically considered using empirical data from Denver and San Francisco. A determination is made of the degree to which fule savings produced by more-efficient vehicle operation on city streets and freeways are offset by the additional fuel consumed by either longer or new vehicular travek, developing in the process an analytical framework, step-by-step procedure, and a base of empirical data that can be easily applied in other urban areas. The principal finding is that where comprehensive application of state-of-the-art techniques for improved traffic conrol of signalized urban arterials and freeways can be used to improve areawide travel time on the order of 10%, the energy savings attributable to this improved quality of flow are substantially less than offset by short-range induced increases in travel. Net energy savings produced are approximately 3% for the two cases analyzed. Further, these estimated savings are of the same order of magnitude as the savings obtainable through the application of measures directed primarily at reducing the demand for vehicular travel. This finding is counter to some recent thinking in which any improvement in highway supply is deemed undesirable from an energy conservation viewpoint since the change is seen as only inducing more travel.
- Research Organization:
- Cambridge Systematics, Inc., MA (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- EM-76-C-01-8628
- OSTI ID:
- 5683987
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/PE/8628-1(Vol.4)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
LAND TRANSPORT
FUEL CONSUMPTION
TRAFFIC CONTROL
ENGINEERING
TRANSPORTATION SYSTEMS
URBAN AREAS
CALIFORNIA
COLORADO
DEMAND FACTORS
DISTANCE
EFFICIENCY
ENERGY CONSERVATION
GRAPHS
NUMERICAL DATA
ROADS
SYSTEMS ANALYSIS
TABLES
CONTROL
DATA
DATA FORMS
ENERGY CONSUMPTION
INFORMATION
NORTH AMERICA
ROCKY MOUNTAIN REGION
TRANSPORT
USA
WESTERN REGION
320203* - Energy Conservation
Consumption
& Utilization- Transportation- Land & Roadway
291000 - Energy Planning & Policy- Conservation