Impacts of Vehicle Speed and Number of Heavy Vehicles on Emissions and Fuel Consumption in Sensitive Locations

Abstract

Tourist areas are one of the most populated parts of cities. Air quality in these spaces is critical as they are more susceptible to the particles emitted by vehicles. The concentration of exhaust emissions around these sensitive locations may cause untreatable health issues for visitors, commuters, and citizens. Heavy-duty vehicles (HVs) are one of the most influential factors creating adverse impacts on air quality. This study proposes a state-of-the-art simulation-based approach to study the relationship between an HV’s speed, its fuel consumption, and its contribution to exhaust emissions in sensitive locations. For this purpose, air pollution and fuel consumption in various scenarios were simulated and compared. The proposed method was applied to one of the most popular tourist areas in Trento (Italy), using VISSIM and EnViVer traffic simulation software packages. The results confirmed the impact of vehicle speed on fuel consumption and the amount of emission. The results showed that a 100-km/h increase in the speed of both light vehicles and HV can increase the NOx and volatile organic compound emissions by approximately 20%. Also, CO emissions and fuel consumption increase by approximately 33% when the HV speed increases from 30 to 50km/h. The emission per seat can be decreased by up to 40% and 27% by 20- and 10-km/h reductions in speed, respectively, together with a 100% increase in the HV percentage. Implementing this proposed method could avoid the unintentional negative impacts of air pollution on susceptible visitors.