Intelligent Transportation Systems for Improving Traffic Energy Efficiency and Reducing GHG Emissions from Roadways: A White Paper from the National Center for Sustainable Transportation

Details

• Creators:
  Barth, Matthew J. ; Wu, Guoyuan ; Boriboonsomsin, Kanok
• Corporate Creators:
  University of California, Riverside. Center for Environmental Research and Technology
• Corporate Contributors:
  National Center for Sustainable Transportation (NCST) ; United States. Department of Transportation. Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology ; United States. Department of Transportation. University Transportation Centers (UTC) Program
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Advanced Traffic Management Systems Advanced Traveler Information Systems Advanced Vehicle Control Systems Energy Consumption Environmental Impacts Intelligent Transportation Systems Pollutants Research Projects Sustainable Transportation
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States;Europe
• Corporate Publisher:
  National Center for Sustainable Transportation (NCST) (UTC)
• Abstract:
  The field of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) has witnessed significantly increased activity in recent years, with the application of modern control, communications, and information technologies to vehicles and roadway infrastructure. In general, ITS can be categorized into three major target areas: Vehicle Systems, Traffic Management Systems, and Travel Information Systems. The primary objectives of ITS have been focused primarily on improving safety and increasing mobility and associated transportation efficiency. In addition, it is now well known that ITS technology can be used to reduce transportation-related environmental impacts. These environmental impacts include pollutant emissions that lead to poor air quality, as well as energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Over the years, we have seen many ITS programs focusing on safety and mobility also having significant environmental benefits. These benefits range widely due to a number of variables such as type of application, technology used, and pre-existing condition before deployment. In recent years, a number of ITS programs have emerged that are specifically designed to minimize the environmental impacts of transportation. Many of these environmental-ITS programs take advantage of the “connected vehicle” technology that enables vehicles to communicate with each other as well as with roadway infrastructure, and vice versa. These environmental-ITS programs typically show energy and emissions reductions on the order of 5% to 15%. Most of the environmental-ITS programs are additive, therefore greater benefits may be achieved when a multitude of these programs are put into place. On the other hand, the mobility and safety impacts of environmental-ITS programs are not currently well understood. As more of these programs are deployed, comprehensive impact assessments of their environmental, mobility, and safety performances are needed. When planning the deployment of ITS programs that will improve traffic flow and reduce congestion, it is important to also consider any potential induced demand effects, which may result in an overall increase in vehicle miles traveled (VMT) after the ITS programs have been deployed for a certain period of time. Such increase in the amount of travel is undesirable as it may wash out the mobility and environmental benefits of the ITS programs. It may be that to counteract these effects; the ITS programs may have to be coupled with some specific travel demand management measures such as pricing.
• Format:
  PDF
• Collection(s):
  University Transportation Centers US Transportation Collection Autonomous Vehicles
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:6d7753d5c1f64626c50b206a02ac77653bfc55b311bbcfc8b43def689cca20c406c3c70fa239d34862b860a5bce21d960d2de8ab1f4af69a4953bc5dc48dc21e
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/31150/dot_31150_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 716.67 KB ]