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Title: Vehicle emissions at intersections

Thesis/Dissertation ·
OSTI ID:6984138

High concentrations of vehicular emissions at road intersections are a health-related issue of concern, and the associated fuel consumption is a matter of continuing economic interest. For use in this study, a computer simulation model called TEXAS-II was developed by the author and others to estimate with respect to time and location the emissions of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and oxides of nitrogen as well as the amount of fuel consumed by individually-characterized vehicles as they pass through an intersection environment which can be described accurately in terms of its geometric features, traffic control, and traffic stream characteristics. The TEXAS-II simulation model was run approximately 300 times in a series of designed experiments to obtain quantitative estimates of the effects of various traffic and intersection factors on emissions, fuel consumption, traffic delays, and queue lengths. The resulting data were utilized to build predictive models for emissions and fuel consumption at intersections. The factors which were used for simulating the intersection environment, were 1) intersection size, 2) presence or absence of a special left-turn lane, 3) pretimed signal control, 4) full-actuated signal control, 5) all-way stop-sign control, 6) traffic volume, 7) left turns, and 8) heavy-duty vehicles. Traffic engineers and transportation planners can utilize the results of this study in one of three ways. First, the predictive models can be applied to calculate the expected emissions, fuel consumption, and traffic performance parameters for any intersection situations that was included in the range of simulated conditions. Second, a series of tables can be used for convenient look-up of these values, or finally, the TEXAS-II computer simulation program can be executed to obtain detailed data concerning a specific intersection environment of practical interest.

OSTI ID:
6984138
Resource Relation:
Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English